Bush, Obama to speak at McCain funeral
Former PM Mulroney says senator was always ‘a friend of Canada’ Sen. John McCain greets supporters before a campaign rally in San Diego in February 2000.
WASHINGTON— Two former presidents are expected to speak at U.S. Sen. John McCain’s service and he will lie in state in both Washington and Arizona as part of a cross-country funeral procession ending with his burial at the U.S. Naval Academy, according to plans taking shape Sunday.
McCain had long feuded with U.S. President Donald Trump, and two White House officials said McCain’s family had asked, before the senator’s death, that Trump not attend the funeral services.
Vice-President Mike Pence is likely to attend, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.
A day after McCain died of brain cancer at 81, his family, friends and congressional and state leaders were working out details of the farewell to the decorated Vietnam War hero, prisoner of war and six-term senator.
His office website said McCain will lie in state and have funeral services in Arizona on Wednesday and Thursday. The procession will then head to Washington, where McCain will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
There will then be a procession past the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and a funeral service at Washington National Cathedral.
A private funeral is planned at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Trump tweeted that his “deepest sympathies and respect” went out to McCain’s family. First lady Melania Trump tweeted thanks to McCain for his service to the country.
Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who blocked McCain’s own White House ambitions, are among those expected to speak at the senator’s funeral.
“These were bitter contests, both of them,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, McCain’s fellow Arizona senator, and “to ask them to speak at your funeral, and for them to be honoured at the opportunity, that tells you all you need to know.”
Flake told CBS’s Face the Nation that McCain “was quick to forgive — certainly put the good of the country above himself, and the fact that his former opponents will be there speaking says all we need to know.”
McCain, an avowed free trad- er and longtime supporter of expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement, was remembered by Canadian politicians as a friend to Canada who reached across political boundaries to do what he felt was right.
“Senator McCain was a great friend to Canada and a true statesman whose intelligence, tenacity and courage were unmatched,” Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland wrote on Twitter.
Former prime minister Brian Mulroney echoed the sentiment in a written statement Sunday.
“John McCain was always a committed friend of Canada,” he said. “On any issue, John would always come down on the side of his deep friendship with us.”
McCain died at his Arizona ranch after a yearlong battle with brain cancer.
A black hearse, accompanied by a police motorcade, could be seen driving away from the ranch near Sedona where McCain spent his final weeks. For 80 kilometres along Interstate 17 southbound, on every overpass and at every exit ramp, people watched the procession. Hundreds, including many waving American flags, parked their cars and got out to watch.
Congressional leaders announced that McCain would lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, though they did not give a date.
Arizona will accord McCain that honour on Wednesday, when he would have turned 82.
“The nation mourns the loss of a great American patriot, a statesman who put his country first and enriched this institution through many years of service,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.