McCain lies in state at US Capitol
Leaders from both parties gather in the US Capitol Rotunda to honour war hero
John McCain’s body lies in state at the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington D.C. yesterday. He became the 35th American in US history to receive the honour. Republicans and Democrats came together to praise McCain as an embodiment of America’s idealism and sense of humour, but there was one notable absentee: President Donald Trump.
Abitterly divided US Congress came together yesterday to commemorate the late Senator John McCain, remembering him as a tenacious fighter for his ideals who never lost his sense of humour or his ability to inspire others.
Leaders from both parties gathered in the US Capitol Rotunda yesterday to honour McCain on the third of five days of memorial celebrations in Arizona and Washington for the Vietnam War hero and twotime Republican presidential candidate.
Republican President Donald Trump was missing from the ceremony, a result of the animosity between the two men that lingered even after the Arizona senator’s death on Saturday from brain cancer.
Trump will also miss today’s service at the Washington National Cathedral, where former President Barack Obama, the Democrat who defeated McCain in 2008, and former Republican President George W. Bush, who beat McCain in their party’s 2000 presidential primary, will pay tribute to McCain.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who often fought with McCain over issues such as campaign finance reform and Obama’s health care overhaul, praised him as a “generational leader” in the Senate.
“He would fight tooth and nail for his vision of the common good. Depending on the issue, you knew John would either be your staunchest ally or your most stubborn opponent,” McConnell said.
“At any moment, he might be preparing an eloquent reflection on human liberty or a devastating joke, served up with his signature cackle and that John McCain glint in his eye,” he said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said he was sometimes on the receiving end of McCain’s “distinct brand of candour.” This is one of the bravest souls our nation has ever produced,” Ryan said.
Campaign fund-raiser
Vice-president Mike Pence described McCain as “an American patriot,” and said Trump had asked him to be there to pay his respects.
After the ceremony, the public will pass through the Rotunda for six hours to pay their respects to McCain by filing past his coffin, which was brought into the Rotunda and placed atop a pine board catafalque originally built in 1865 for President Abraham Lincoln’s casket.
Trump will travel to one of his private golf clubs for a campaign fund-raiser.
Sitting American presidents traditionally “serve as a source of solace and comfort” for the country at times of loss and tragedy, Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer said.
But the Trump-McCain relationship left little room for that.
In 2015, not long after Trump kicked off his presidential campaign, McCain condemned his hard-line rhetoric on illegal immigration, accusing Trump of “firing up the crazies.” Trump hit back, saying of McCain’s 5-1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam: “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Trump received five deferments that got him out of military service.
More recently, McCain accused Trump of kowtowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a July summit in Helsinki, calling it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”