Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Tuesday that the last words Sen. John McCain ever spoke to him indicated that he lived a more full life than he ever could have imagined.
“I have not been cheated,” Graham said on Fox News when asked what those words were. He said they meant that McCain “lived a life beyond any imagination that he had at 17.”
Graham and McCain were close allies in the Senate, often backing each other up on issues of national security. Graham called McCain his mentor and friend, and said he took the news of McCain’s death on Saturday hard.
[Related: Friends, colleagues react to McCain death: ‘John McCain will cast a long shadow’]
“I’ve been a basket case,” he said. “To all the friends that I have who reached out to me, thank you. It means a lot to me.”
Graham will speak on the Senate floor Tuesday about McCain, and he especially valued McCain’s love for America.
“If I had to pick one person to explain America to someone from another planet, it would be John. He could answer the question, ‘Who are these Americans?'”
