‘To Be Loved By Joe Lieberman Is An Experience You'll Never Forget’: Lindsey Graham Honors Late Sen

2 months ago

During a memorial service last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) remembered the late Sen. Joe Lieberman.

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Transcript

00:00I learned today that his middle name was Isidore.

00:21His passing saved him a lot of grief.

00:27I can't believe I didn't know that.

00:31Oh wow, I'm going to get through this, Hadassah.

00:34We all will.

00:36So the common bond, why are we all here?

00:40We love Joe, right?

00:43And he loved us.

00:44And to be loved by Joe Lieberman is an experience you will never, ever forget.

00:50His dad owned a liquor store.

00:52My dad owned a liquor store.

00:55Good training for the job in which we're talking about today.

00:59Good training for religious people.

01:04So I loved him like a brother, and I never had one.

01:10The three amigos, you can't see this, but you can come up and see it later.

01:15We're on some 130 going somewhere in Kevlar.

01:20John's reading a book.

01:22Joe is looking at his phone, and I'm asleep.

01:26That's the most accurate picture in the world about the three amigos.

01:32Now how did this happen?

01:35You know, Al, you talked about your partner and all the things he did, and Susan, what

01:39a great summary of legislative accomplishments.

01:42But people got to remember, after 9-11, Joe changed.

01:49Joe was always a social liberal.

01:52Always the nicest guy in the room, the smartest guy in the room.

01:56But after 9-11, that night, I talked to him, going across the street.

02:02He said, Lindsey, boy, we can never let this happen again.

02:06And from that came the three amigos.

02:10And from that is the highlight of my life.

02:15So much to talk about in such a short period of time.

02:19Everybody's got a Dalai Lama story.

02:22Here's mine.

02:28We're at the Wailing Wall.

02:30This is how it begins.

02:32John's running for president.

02:33So me and Joe are just going wherever John goes and making it up as we go.

02:38So John is supposed to go to the Wailing Wall and Western Wall and put his hand out.

02:44And that's the money shot for the Israeli press.

02:47What did I learn at the Wailing Wall?

02:49Do not get between the Israeli press and John McCain.

02:53So they crushed me against the wall.

02:57And I began to wail.

02:58So it's actually, help me, help me.

03:02Joe got me up.

03:05So I wrenched my knees.

03:07Fast forward.

03:08The next stop, somehow, is we meet the Dalai Lama in Colorado.

03:11You can't make this stuff up, right?

03:14So I'm sitting over in the corner because I'm barely walking.

03:16Joe brings the Dalai Lama over.

03:18And he says, I want you to meet my good friend Lindsey Graham.

03:21I said, hey, Dalai.

03:22I mean, hello.

03:23I don't know.

03:24What do you say to the guy?

03:25Hello, Dalai.

03:26He's hurt his knee.

03:27Can you help him?

03:28So he puts his hand on my knee.

03:30The Dalai Lama does, not Joe.

03:34And he goes, mm, mm, mm.

03:38And he says, is it any better?

03:39And I said, no.

03:40And he says, I didn't think so.

03:43So anybody met Gaddafi?

03:51You didn't miss a lot.

03:53So Susan, you might have been there.

03:56So John had all these great ideas and some not so good.

04:02This was one of the not so good ideas.

04:03Let's go meet Gaddafi.

04:04I said, why?

04:05Well, anyway, so we go meet him.

04:08We drive around in the middle of the night, and we go to this tent.

04:12And this guy's jacked up on everything you can put in a human body.

04:16And he's got Amazon women bodyguards, and I'm trying to find a way out of here.

04:22So he starts out talking about the great scourge of mankind.

04:27It's not climate change in his eyes.

04:28It was Switzerland.

04:32We're here with this nut job, surrounded by all these people with guns.

04:37And he went on and on about how we should dismember Switzerland and give it to the

04:42French, the Italians, and the Germans.

04:45And it was always John, Joe, and me.

04:48John quickly said, I'm going to let Joe speak first.

04:55Joe said, I never really thought about it that way, but I've learned a lot, and I appreciate

05:00having met you.

05:04So we lived to tell about it.

05:06The last quick story, John read somewhere 500 people were killed in one of the stands

05:12protesting against the government.

05:15So John called me, and Joe said, we need to go.

05:18And I said, why?

05:21Joe said, 503 sounds better to John.

05:25There was no place that John and Joe wouldn't go to show up for all the right reasons.

05:30And I'm here to tell you it was the highlight of my life to be around those two guys doing

05:38things that mattered at a time of great peril, being able to laugh.

05:44Your husband, your grandfather, your father was the coolest dude on the planet to me because

05:52he could deliver jokes, just endless jokes.

05:58I am so blessed to have known him.

06:00Adjective, he was humble, right?

06:03Confident.

06:04He knew Iran was bad, and nobody was going to convince him otherwise.

06:09And he believed we should see it through in Iraq, and he's willing to lose for it.

06:13That's confidence.

06:14He had confidence in who he was and what he believed.

06:18He was kind, incredibly kind to me, but strong, strong to the point he would give what most

06:26of us would never think about giving up our job in politics.

06:31That's strong.

06:33He was religious to the point of enough already.

06:42Do we have any orthodox people here?

06:45Raise your hand.

06:47Too many rules.

06:50Joe could tell you when it was sundown any place on the planet on a Friday.

06:56I don't care where we were, he knew it was sundown.

06:59What did I learn when it was sundown on Saturday so we didn't have to do this anymore?

07:05So I learned a lot.

07:08Finally, Vice President Gore, Joe Lieberman convinced me from South Carolina to do a climate

07:16change bill with him and John Kerry, which means he's the most persuasive person on the

07:25frigging planet.

07:30He sold me hook, line, and sinker, and the problem is real.

07:35We met, and we met, and we met, and we talked, and we talked, and we talked, and Joe kept

07:40me in the game.

07:41And so what did I learn?

07:42A lot about climate change, and I got a restraining order against John Kerry.

07:47So that was an incredible experience.

07:53So from the time I met the man until the time he passed, I was better off for having

08:00met him.

08:01Hadassah, he was the love of your life.

08:05To the family, I know he's your patriarch and your rock, in order to make you feel good

08:10to the grandkids, you're trying to save Social Security, how are you doing your part?

08:14To all the grandkids, I hope you'll listen to all the things being said about your granddad.

08:22He was a wonderful man, and one of the best things that ever happened to Lindsey Graham

08:28was to meet Joe Lieberman.

08:31So until we meet again, my amigo, God bless.

‘To Be Loved By Joe Lieberman Is An Experience You'll Never Forget’: Lindsey Graham Honors Late Sen

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