McCain daughter hits out against Trump
US president meanwhile went to one of his golf courses as ceremony was underway
Senator John McCain’s daughter paid tribute to her father yesterday with a broadside at President Donald Trump, lambasting the US leader without naming him for using “cheap rhetoric” against a man celebrated as a war hero and statesman.
Meghan McCain, who has made no secret of her unhappiness with Trump’s criticism of her father, kicked off a memorial service that was attended by a who’s who crowd of Democratic and Republican leaders who gathered to celebrate the former war prisoner’s life.
Asked not to attend
Trump meanwhile went to one of his golf courses as the ceremony honouring McCain was underway.
The president’s motorcade arrived at Trump National Golf Club in Loudoun County, Virginia around 11.16am. As one of his final wishes, McCain had asked that Trump not attend.
“He was a great man,” Meghan McCain said at the Washington National Cathedral. “We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served.”
Trump, who has feuded publicly with McCain and mocked his military service, received five deferments that got him out of serving in the military.
McCain’s daughter delivered a tearful but forceful tribute to her father, who she said told her to “show them how tough you are” with her eulogy. Taking aim at Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” she said McCain’s America was always great.
Former US presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush attended the service.