WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, congressional colleagues and world leaders Tuesday will say their final goodbyes to Sen. Lindsey Graham, the influential and colorful foreign policy hawk whose sudden death this month at age 71 stunned Washington and reverberated in capitals around the globe.
Two days of ceremonies and funeral services began Tuesday morning when Graham’s American flag-draped casket arrived at the Capitol — his last visit to a building where he served for more than three decades.
In honor of the senator’s long military career, an armed forces body bearer team carried his casket up the Capitol steps; he served as an Air Force judge advocate general, or JAG, officer and retired from the Air Force Reserve in 2015 with the rank of colonel.
Senate colleagues, Cabinet members
From the Capitol, Graham’s casket will depart for Washington National Cathedral for an invitation-only funeral service at 2 p.m. ET. That also will be livestreamed.
Trump is expected to speak at the funeral. Cabinet officials and congressional and military leaders are expected to be on hand, as are global leaders who viewed Graham as a key American ally on defense and foreign policy matters, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Also present will be Graham’s sister and successor, Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., who was sworn in to her late brother’s seat this month and plans to run for a full term in an Aug. 11 primary.
Remembrances will continue at the South Carolina State House on Wednesday morning. Graham’s casket will be carried by a South Carolina State Guard horse-drawn military wagon, known as a caisson, followed by an F-16 flyover to mark his more than three decades in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve.
A funeral service, open to the public, will be held at First Baptist Church of Columbia. A private family burial will take place in Pickens County, where Graham was born and raised.
