McCain service tributes take aim at Trump
JOHN McCain’s daughter opened his memorial service by posing her father’s legacy as a direct challenge to President Donald Trump.
Meghan McCain set a tone that echoed the senator’s own fighting spirit as former presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush gave eulogies yesterday at the Washington National Cathedral.
Mr Bush and Mr Obama, both challenged by Mr McCain in their bids for the White House, drew on the senator’s legacy at home and abroad to talk of the nation’s values, in remarks that at times seemed a clear rebuke of Mr Trump and his brand of politics.
Mr Obama spoke of the long talks he and Mr McCain would have privately in the Oval Office and the senator’s understanding that America’s security and influence came not from “our ability to bend others to our will” but universal values of rule of law and human rights.
“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, tracking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage,” Mr Obama said in another not-soveiled nod to Mr Trump.
“It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born in fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.”
Mr Bush said one of the great gifts in his life was becoming friends with his former White House rival.
“John’s voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder – America is better than this,” Mr Bush said. Meghan McCain levelled pointed criticism at the president in her eulogy.
“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.”