TRUMP LOWERS WHITE HOUSE FLAG FOR MCCAIN
This comes after criticism over failure to honour Arizona senator
PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Monday bowed to pressure to honour the late John McCain, ordering the lowering of flags across the country to half-staff, as the late senator fired a parting shot at the president in a farewell message to the nation.
Trump’s about-face came after he found himself mired in controversy over his rather conspicuous failure to pay tribute to McCain, who died on Saturday at 81 after a yearlong battle with brain cancer.
When veterans’ groups launched appeals for a more fitting salute to McCain, a Navy veteran who was imprisoned for more than five years in Vietnam, the Republican leader blinked.
“Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country,” Trump said as he ordered the flag atop the White House and elsewhere to fly at half-staff until McCain’s burial on Sunday.
The White House flag was lowered after McCain’s death on Saturday, but it was once again at the top of the flagpole on Monday morning.
Trump’s initial silence about McCain underscored the isolation of the US leader and fuelled criticism that he was incapable of bringing a divided nation together even as it mourned a man widely seen as an American hero and a political icon.
In Phoenix, Rick Davis, the twotime presidential candidate’s former campaign manager, confirmed that Trump would not be attending the funeral.
The president said Vice-President Mike Pence would speak at a ceremony honouring McCain at the US Capitol on Friday.
White House chief of staff John Kelly, Defence Secretary James Mattis and National Security Advisor John Bolton would represent the administration at his services, he added.
Davis read a posthumous statement from McCain that did not spare Trump.
“We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe,” McCain said.
“We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been,” he said in an apparent reference to Trump’s plans for a border wall.
“I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil.
“Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here,” he said, adding that the country “will get through these challenging times”.
McCain, who served as a senator from Arizona for more than 30 years, clashed repeatedly with Trump even though they were both Republicans.
The Washington Post reported that White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, Kelly and other senior staff had urged a statement be released referring to McCain as a “hero” – but Trump opted to tweet instead.
“My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain,” Trump tweeted. “Our hearts and prayers are with you!”
That had been the extent of Trump’s remarks on McCain’s passing until the White House statement on Monday.