Feud lingers in paying respect to McCain
WASHINGTON: The flags at the White House, which were lowered at the weekend to mark the death of Senator John McCain, are back at full-staff.
The flags at the US Capitol, meanwhile, remained at half-staff on yesterday to honour the Arizona Republican, who died on Saturday.
President Donald Trump offered his condolences on Twitter to McCain’s family but has not issued a presidential proclamation with an order lowering the flags. The two had a long-running feud. The US Flag Code states that flags be lowered “on the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress”.
After Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts died in 2009, President Barack Obama ordered flags at the White House be flown at half-staff for five days.
McCain is being remembered in Romania for a letter he sent to the government urging the East European nation not to backtrack on fighting corruption.
The August 2 letter sent by the Arizona Republican and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut to Premier Viorica Dancila was republished yesterday.
The letter said recent judicial reforms and proposed legislation to decriminalize certain corruption offences “raises troubling questions,” about the government’s commitment to “hold high-level officials accountable. “
People in Vietnam paid their respects to McCain who had been held as a prisoner of war for more than five years in Vietnam. He was later instrumental in bringing the wartime foes together.
McCain died of brain cancer in his home state of Arizona, which he had served more than six terms in the US Senate.
People paid tribute to him at the U.S Embassy in Hanoi and also at the monument built where he parachuted from his Navy Skyhawk dive bomber in October 1967 and was taken prisoner of war. He was held at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison.
McCain’s service to his country began at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis and will end there in a cemetery overlooking Maryland’s Severn River. A private burial service on Sunday will conclude events honouring him. Plans taking shape called for McCain to lie in state tomorrow in the Arizona State Capitol on what would have been his 82nd birthday. Services will be held at a Phoenix church, and in Washington and Maryland.
In Washington, McCain will lie in state on Friday in the Capitol Rotunda with a formal ceremony and time for the public to pay respects. On Saturday, former Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama are expected to speak at a service at Washington National Cathedral.