Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan Honors the Late Sen. Lindsey Graham

EXCERPT:

KAGAN: “And one would not expect such a cross-party, if you will, vote, certainly from somebody from a deep red or deep blue state, and yet Senator Graham voted for me. And I vividly remember, because he was a vivid person, the conversation that we had in his office prior to my hearing, where he got to know me. It was a long conversation. He took the opportunity to get to know me. He questioned me with great seriousness and great knowledge about my record as solicitor general, including particularly the various terrorism issues that that office had dealt with over the time I was solicitor general. And I still more vividly remember the conversations that we had at my hearing itself. In the last day or so, many people have talked about how funny Senator Graham was. I think Al Franken said he was the funniest man in the Senate. But what I remember about that hearing was that somehow Senator Graham made me look funny, which is a harder thing entirely, by asking me what I had done on Christmas the following year. I’ll skip the the back-and-forth, but many people said to me afterwards that exchange with Senator Graham was the moment my confirmation was sealed. So I want to express my gratitude towards him, not only for his support, but for approaching the confirmation process with the kind of seriousness that he did and the kind of respect he did. And I never got to know Senator Graham very well, but I can see why so many people will deeply miss him and I just wanted to convey that on behalf of me and, again, express the condolences of the entire Court to his family and friends."