Longtime friend, aide reflects on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s decades of service

CHARLOTTE — Very few worked as closely with Sen. Lindsey Graham as his longtime aide and close friend, Kevin Bishop. After nearly three decades working together, he told Channel 9 he witnessed American history with the late senator.

During Graham’s decades of serving in U.S. Congress, Bishop was a 27-year constant serving by his side.

“I’ve gotten to have a front-row seat of history with Lindsey and see what is just American history in action,” Bishop, Graham’s former director of communications, told Channel 9.

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Bishop says he started working with Graham when he was in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1990s.

“He had people who were incredibly loyal to him because Lindsey inspired loyalty, he was just a tremendous guy to be around,” Bishop said.

Bishop recalled one of Graham’s first notable moments, when he became a national figure while serving as one of the House impeachment managers during former President Bill Clinton’s trial in the U.S. Senate.

“In only Lindsey Graham fashion, [he] gets up and says, you know, puts it in plain English: ‘Where I’m from, you call somebody up at 2 o’clock in the morning, you’re up to no good,’ and it just cut through just like a hot knife through butter,” Bishop said.

Bishop says some of Graham’s proudest career moments weren’t the ones in the national spotlight at all.

“Sometimes Lindsey would tell you the proudest he did was like helping the town of Packalet, a little tiny town in South Carolina. One time, he helped them get a police car; they needed a police car. So he helped a lot of communities here with fire trucks and things of that nature; and and I know coming from a small town, that meant a lot to him personally,” Bishop said.

Bishop mentioned Graham’s beginnings in the small South Carolina town of Central, where he grew up and ultimately raised his younger sister, Darline.

“He lived in the back of the bar growing up, and yet his parents, they died when Lindsey was 21 years old, and he helped raise his 13-year-old sister, who he later adopted,” Bishop said.

On Monday, it was his sister who was appointed to fill Graham’s seat for the remainder of the term.

In Darline’s acceptance speech, she said her brother was always there for her, and now, she will be there for him.