Ruby Chen shares memories of Lindsey Graham

Let's bring in Ruby Chen. He is the father of 19-year-old Israeli-American Itay Chen, who was killed during the Hamas attacks on October 7. Ruby, you were invited by Senator Graham's family to attend his memorial service because of the close relationship you two had. Talk to us about the experience of working with Senator Graham and what it meant to you. So my son was not just killed, but he was taken hostage, and he was a hostage for 760 days. And Senator Graham, we met him, I think, after 10 days from October 7. He was on a CODEL with Senator Schumer. And he met us, the families, and he immediately was very compassionate towards what we were going through. And I remember vividly meeting him for a working session in January 24. And he said, look, even though it is not in my interest, I am willing to help a Democratic president to bring out the hostages out. The way to do it is to bring Saudi normalization together, understanding that in order to get normalization in place, there was a need to get a Saudi defense agreement. And he believed that the best way to move that defense agreement forward was with a Democratic majority and the Republicans supporting from the outside, understanding that if it was a Republican-led initiative, it would be very difficult to pass. And he said, I'm willing to help a Democratic president because they understand the magnitude of the fact that they had 250 hostages, including 10 US citizens that we need to get out as soon as possible. And I think we will always cherish the fact that the Senate was willing to do what was good, regardless of partisan issues, and doing what was needed to allow us to be whole as soon as possible.

And I mean, obviously, you had a very personal experience with Senator Graham. For those that never met him, never worked with him, what do you hope the senator's legacy is? So I believe his legacy is still not completed. And he very much wanted to see the economic integration happening in the Middle East, where Israel is part of these large infrastructure projects that would prevent new cycles of violence to happen. And I very much hope that when the president meets the prime minister tomorrow, that one of the questions that he will ask him is, what are you, Mr. Prime Minister, willing to do to make Lindsey's legacy a reality? And having the prime minister speak out publicly and saying what he is willing to do, if he is reelected, to bring the Abraham Accords forward and to make sure that Senator Graham's legacy is indeed becomes a reality, I think that would be the best thing that I think we should see coming out of the meeting between the president and the prime minister.