CBS News97%
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin says Sen. Lindsey Graham was a "fair-minded person"86%
7/12/2026, 6:46:52 PM
BS Summary: This video contains 13 faulty reasoning types, including Confirmation Bias, Framing Effect, and Hasty Generalization, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 38.7% saturation with 322 hits. Analysis detected 933 faulty-reasoning hits from 830 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 79.9% and a BS Rank of 86% (2,262 of 15,740 videos). This video is worse (more manipulative) than 85.60% of the video peer group.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin says Sen. Lindsey Graham was a "fair-minded person"
Now, despite the political divide in the country, Republicans and Democrats alike are mourning Senator Graham.
As my colleague Nicole Killian just mentioned, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, posted this tribute earlier today.
He commended Graham for working with, quote, "every senator on a strategy to end the war in Ukraine," saying it was typical Lindsey.
Durbin also pointed out Graham's role as the only Republican to co-sponsor the DREAM Act, the bill which eventually led to protections for children of migrants or so-called dreamers.
Senator Durbin joins us on the phone by now right now.
Senator Durbin, I appreciate your time.
First of all, just give me your gut reaction when you got the news early this morning.
How do you think the Senate will miss the presence of Senator Graham?
Well, it was a shock because just days ago I was in Turkey with Lindsey.
We were having dinner at the ambassador's residence.
There probably were 50 or 60 people there.
Lindsey was working the room like a freshman candidate for Congress on his theory of how to end the war in Ukraine.
This man was as bright as they came and was fair-minded in many respects.
I asked for his help and I counted him as a friend and ally, but to watch him work that room with every political official was typical Lindsey Graham.
He was always at the center of the most important debates of our time.
And he was someone that you scrapped with on the Judiciary Committee.
He has a record of pushing through a lot of Trump appointees on the federal bench.
That's a place where you clashed, but you also worked really closely, as I mentioned in the lead-in, Senator, on immigration.
And some people may quite not understand how those two things can be existing at the same time.
You clash one place and you work well together in another.
Help my audience understand how that works in the Senate.
Members Members of my family asked me to explain that when I come home every weekend.
How in the world do you get along with this guy?
Well, I can tell you I could trust him.
His word was good.
When I chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, he sat next to me as the ranking Republican.
In a 4-year period of time, we approved more federal nominations for the bench, 235 lifetime nominations, than ever in our history.
It was a bipartisan undertaking.
We were respectful to one another.
We I didn't surprise him, didn't stab him in the back, and he treated me the same.
I knew he was going to be a loyal Republican sometimes I'd be disagreeing with everything he said, but by and large I knew he was a fair-minded person who would do gutsy things.
I introduced the DREAM Act 20 years ago.
Most people know it it's for young people brought to the United States as kids and infants to give them a chance to citizenship.
He was the only Republican who would openly publicly co-sponsor the bill until very recently.
Several years ago he told me he just couldn't do it anymore.
But for years he stuck his neck out and I appreciated it.
And Senator, I'm sure you've had conversations with Senator Graham when he was living about the way he changed his attitude about President Trump.
As we've noted in this broadcast, he was critical in 2016.
He was also critical of President Trump in the immediate aftermath of the January 6th riot on the US Capitol, but over time remained a formidable ally of the president's both legislatively and politically.
How do you think that happened?
I think there were a number of things that occurred.
Trump became a a stronger, more viable force within the Republican Party.
Lindsey saw opportunities there to work with him and do some things important to him personally.
And they became personal friends.
It was not uncommon for Lindsey to talk about golfing with the president.
I think that was a frequent occurrence.
He was on the phone with him two or three times a day on issues on Capitol Hill.
The president I heard this morning had kind words for him as he should and the president respected him.
So, Lindsey played an important national role by becoming part of the inside leadership of the Republican Party.
Before we let you go, Senator, what will you miss most personally?
Personally, I could trust him, count him as a friend.
I could say things to him and say it's just between us and know that that's where we end.
We need more people like that.
Trusting relationship between senators of different parties can lead to some positive legislative achievements.
We need more Lindsey Grahams.
Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, I appreciate the time, sir.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome. Thank you.
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.