‘AMERICAN HERO’
McCain remembered by former vice president, NFL star, friends
PHOENIX — A former vice president, an NFL star and other friends remembered Sen. John McCain as a “true American hero” — and a terrible driver with a wicked sense of humor and love of a good battle — at a crowded church service Thursday for the maverick politician that ended to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”
Addressing an estimated 3,500 mourners, former Vice President Joe Biden recalled “the sheer joy that crossed his face when he knew he was about to take the stage of the Senate floor and start a fight.”
Mr. Biden, a Democrat who was among the fast friends the Republican senator made across the aisle, said he thought of Mr. McCain as a brother, “with a lot of family fights.”
The service for the statesman, former prisoner of war and twotime presidential candidate unfolded at North Phoenix Baptist Church after a motorcade bearing Mr. McCain’s body made its way from the state Capitol past Arizonans waving American flags and campaign-style McCain signs.
Family members watched in silence as uniformed military members removed the flagdraped casket from a black hearse and carried it into the church. Mr. McCain died Saturday of brain cancer at age 81.
Mr. McCain’s longtime chief of staff Grant Woods, a former Arizona attorney general, drew laughs with a eulogy in which he talked about Mr. McCain’s “terribly bad driving” and his sense
of humor, which included calling the Leisure World retirement community “Seizure World.”
Mr. Woods also recalled the way Mr. McCain would introduce him to new staff members by saying, “You’ll have to fire half of them.”
The church’s senior pastor, Noe Garcia, pronounced Mr. McCain “a true American hero.”
The service brought to a close two days of mourning for the six-term senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee in his home state.
A motorcade then took Mr. McCain’s body to the airport, where it was put aboard a military plane that flew to Joint Base Andrews, Md., outside Washington ahead of a lying-in-state at the U.S. Capitol on Friday, a service at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday, and burial at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., on Sunday.
Twenty-four sitting U.S. senators and four former senators attended the church service, according to Mr. McCain’s office.
Neither Mr. Biden nor other speakers uttered President Donald Trump’s name, but Mr. Biden made what some saw as a veiled reference to the president when he talked about Mr. McCain’s character and how he parted company with those who “lacked the basic values of decency and respect, knowing this project is bigger than yourself.”
Mr. Biden said Mr. McCain “could not stand the abuse of power wherever he saw it, in whatever form, in whatever country.”
Dabbing his eyes at times, Mr. Biden also referred to his own son’s death from cancer, saying of the disease, “It’s brutal, it’s relentless, it’s unforgiving.” And he spoke directly to Mr. McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, in the front row: “You were his ballast.”
At the end of the nearly 90-minute ceremony, Mr. McCain’s casket was wheeled out of the church to “My Way,” in tribute to a politician known for following his own path based on his personal principles.
Mr. McCain clashed openly with Mr. Trump, who mocked Mr. McCain for getting captured during the Vietnam War. Two White House officials said Mr. McCain’s family had asked that Mr. Trump not attend the funeral services.
Mr. Trump, who had been his McCain’s an muted widely interview death, response criticized insisted to Mr. with for in Bloomberg News on Thursday that he’d honored the senator appropriately.
“I’ve done everything that they requested and no, I don’t think I have at all,” he said in response to a question about whether he’d made a mistake and missed an opportunity to unite the country.
Asked whether Mr. McCain would have made a better president than Mr. McCain’s 2008 rival, Barack Obama, Mr. Trump said: “I don’t want to comment on it. I have a very strong opinion, all right.”
The memorial was laced with humor and featured a racially and ethnically diverse roster of speakers and other participants.
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who is black, talked about his unlikely connection with Mr. McCain, a big fan of the state’s sports teams.
“While from very different worlds, we developed a meaningful friendship,” said Mr. Fitzgerald, adding that Mr. McCain didn’t judge others on their skin color, gender or bank account, but on their character.
As the 11-vehicle motorcade with a 17-motorcycle police escort made its way toward along the the 8-mile church, route people held signs that read simply “McCain,” and cars on the other side of the highway stopped or slowed to a crawl in apparent tribute.
A few firefighters saluted from atop a fire engine parked on an overpass as the motorcade passed underneath on Interstate 17. One man shouted, “We love you!” Michael Fellars awaited the motorcade outside the church Thursday. The Marine veteran said he was also the fourth person in line to attend the viewing at the state Capitol for Mr. McCain, a Navy pilot held prisoner by the North Vietnamese for 5½ years after being shot down over Hanoi. “He was about the only politician that I have ever known who cared for the people in his country, and he tried his level best to make it a better place in which to live,” Mr. Fellars said. On Wednesday, a private service was held at the Arizona Capitol and then about 15,000 people filed past the senator’s casket.