McCain funeral speakers expected to include Bush and Obama
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 Donald Trump, and two White House officials said McCain’s family had asked before the senator’s death that Trump not attend the funeral. Vice-President Mike Pence is likely to attend, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.
A day after McCain died 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. There will then be a procession past the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and a funeral at Washington National Cathedral. A private funeral is planned at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Trump tweeted that his “deepest sympathies and respect” went out to McCain’s family. First lady Melania Trump tweeted thanks to McCain for his service to the country.
Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who blocked the Arizona Republican’s own White House ambitions, are among those expected to speak at McCain’s funeral.
In Canada, former prime minister Brian Mulroney remembered McCain as “a committed friend of Canada.” Mulroney said in a statement that the Arizona senator “would always come down on the side of his friendship with us.”
As recently as June, McCain tweeted his support for Canada after U.S. President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau weak and dishonest. On Saturday, Trudeau tweeted that McCain was an American patriot and hero whose sacrifices for his country, and lifetime of public service, were an inspiration to millions.
Conservative party Leader Andrew Scheer also wrote in Twitter that McCain’s decades of service in defence of freedom crossed party lines and touched freedom-loving people across borders. Former prime minister Stephen Harper also expressed his sympathies, calling McCain an American hero.
A black hearse, accompanied by a police motorcade, could be seen driving away from the ranch near Sedona, Ariz., where McCain spent his final weeks.
For 80 kilometres along Interstate 17 southbound, on every overpass and at every exit ramp, people watched the procession.
Earlier this summer, McCain issued a blistering statement criticizing Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Obama, who triumphed over McCain in 2008, said that despite their differences, McCain and he shared a “fidelity to something higher — the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed.”
Bush, who defeated McCain for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination, called McCain a “man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order” and a “friend whom I’ll deeply miss.”
Tributes also poured in from other leaders around the globe.