Two days of funeral ceremonies for Lindsey Graham, the late South Carolina Republican senator, will begin in Washington on Tuesday, with mourners set to include Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Both leaders are also meeting Donald Trump at the White House.
A longtime foreign policy hawk, Graham was working on a new Russia sanctions bill when he met Zelenskyy in Kyiv earlier this month, dying shortly after returning to Washington from a heart condition aged ۷۱.
On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal released footage shot by a documentary team in February, showing Graham’s delight over the Iran war and eager support for Netanyahu and Israel.
Memorial events on Tuesday will begin on Capitol Hill, where Graham, a former US air force lawyer, was a member of the House for eight years and a senator for ۲۳.
From the Capitol Rotunda, the casket will be taken to the Washington National Cathedral for an afternoon service, with Trump – who Graham once called a “jackass” and a “race-baiting bigot” before switching to support him – among the scheduled speakers.
On Wednesday, in Graham’s home state, ceremonies will begin with services and an F-۱۶ flyover at the South Carolina state house in Columbia, followed by a procession to First Baptist Church for a public service. A private family burial will take place in Pickens county, home to Central, the small town where Graham and his younger sister and Senate successor, Darline, were born.
Back in Washington on Tuesday, the Israeli and Ukrainian leaders will each head for high-stakes White House meetings.
The behind-the-scenes footage of Graham released by the Wall Street Journal was shot on the first day of US-Israeli strikes on Iran, a move long urged by Netanyahu and eagerly embraced by Trump.
“I almost cried,” Graham said. “I mean, like, how long have we been pushing this? It’s here. I talked with Trump this morning. Holy Jack. It’s here. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. He loves blowing stuff up.”
At least ۱۷۵ people, most of them schoolchildren, were killed in the Iranian city of Minab in those first strikes, in all likelihood by US missiles in a controversial “double tap” strike.
Another clip released on Sunday showed Graham predicting that it would take “about three or four weeks” for attacks on Iran to cause the regime in Tehran to “start losing control of some cities” and for the US-Israeli effort to achieve “almost irreversible momentum”. That has not happened. Nor has the US joined Israeli attacks on Lebanon, as Graham was shown advocating to Netanyahu.
In the footage, Graham also said: “Trump and Bibi [Netanyahu] are like Roosevelt and Churchill. They’re the right two guys to confront this evil.”
As it turns out, Netanyahu and Trump’s relationship has been placed under considerable stress, with reports of angry confrontations.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, will hope for a more constructive Oval Office meeting than the now-famous occasion in February ۲۰۲۵, when he was upbraided by Trump and JD Vance, including for not wearing a suit.
Relations between Kyiv and Washington have remained strained, even as Ukraine has gained the upper hand in its long fight against Russian invaders.
