Friends bid farewell to senator
John McCain remembered as hero, maverick at his Arizona funeral
PHOENIX — A former vice-president, an NFL star and other friends remembered Sen. John McCain as a “true American hero” — and a terrible driver with a wicked sense of humour and love of a good battle — at a crowded church service Thursday for the maverick politician that ended to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”
Addressing 3,500 mourners, former vice-president Joe Biden recalled “the sheer joy that crossed his face when he knew he was about to take the stage of the Senate floor and start a fight.”
Biden, a Democrat who was among the fast friends the Republican senator made across the aisle, said he thought of McCain as a brother, “with a lot of family fights.”
The service for the statesman, former prisoner of war and two-time presidential candidate unfolded at North Phoenix Baptist Church after a motorcade bearing McCain’s body made its way from the state capitol past Arizonans waving American flags and campaign-style McCain signs.
Family members watched in silence as uniformed military members removed the flag-draped casket from a black hearse and carried it into the church. McCain died Saturday of brain cancer at age 81.
McCain’s longtime chief of staff Grant Woods, a former Arizona attorney general, drew laughs with a eulogy in which he talked about McCain’s “terribly bad driving” and his sense of humour, which included calling the Leisure World retirement community “Seizure World.”
The church’s senior pastor, Noe Garcia, pronounced McCain “a true American hero.”
The service brought to a close two days of mourning for the sixterm senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee in his home state.
A motorcade then took McCain’s body to the airport, where it was put aboard a military plane that flew to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, outside Washington ahead of a lying-in-state at the U.S. Capitol today, a service at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday and burial at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Sunday.
Neither Biden nor other speakers uttered President Donald Trump’s name, but Biden made what some saw as a veiled reference to the president when he talked about McCain’s character and how he parted company with those who “lacked the basic values of decency and respect, knowing this project is bigger than yourself.”
Biden said McCain “could not stand the abuse of power wherever he saw it, in whatever form, in whatever country.”
At the end of the nearly 90minute ceremony, McCain’s casket was wheeled out of the church to “My Way,” in tribute to a politician known for following his own path based on his personal principles.
McCain clashed openly with Trump, who mocked McCain for getting captured during the Vietnam War. Two White House officials said McCain’s family had asked that Trump not attend the funeral services.
Trump, who had been widely criticized for his muted response to McCain’s death, insisted in an interview with Bloomberg News Thursday that he’d honoured the senator appropriately.
“I’ve done everything that they requested and no, I don’t think I have at all,” he said in response to a question about whether he’d made a mistake and missed an opportunity to unite the country.
The memorial was laced with humour and featured a racially and ethnically diverse roster of speakers and other participants.
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who is black, talked about his unlikely connection with McCain, a big fan of the state’s sports teams.
“While from very different worlds, we developed a meaningful friendship,” said Fitzgerald, adding that McCain didn’t judge others on their skin colour, gender or bank account but on their character.