Arizona, Washington plan salutes to admired senator
WASHINGTON — Two former presidents are expected to speak at Sen. John McCain’s service and he will lie in state in both the nation’s capital and Arizona as part of a cross-country funeral procession ending with his burial at the U.S. Naval Academy, according to plans taking shape Sunday.
McCain had long feuded with President Trump, and two White House officials said McCain’s family had asked, before the senator’s death, that Trump not attend the funeral services. Vice President Mike Pence is likely to attend, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A day after McCain died at his home in Arizona of brain cancer at 81, his family, friends and congressional and state leaders were working out details of the farewell to the decorated Vietnam War hero, prisoner of war and six-term senator.
His office website said McCain will lie in state and have funeral services in Arizona on Wednesday and Thursday. The procession will then head to Washington, where McCain will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda on Friday. There will then be a procession past the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and a funeral service Saturday at Washington National Cathedral. A private funeral is planned Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who blocked McCain’s own White House ambitions, are among those expected to speak at McCain’s funeral.
“The fact that his former opponents will be there speaking says all we need to know,” Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Congressional leaders announced that McCain would lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, though they did not give a date. “The nation mourns the loss of a great American patriot, a statesman who put his country first and enriched this institution through many years of service,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Arizona GOP Gov. Doug Ducey does not plan to announce his selection of a Senate successor to McCain until after the burial. Under state law, the governor’s appointee to serve until the next general election in 2020 must come from the same political party.