Biden pays moving tribute to McCain’s life, values
In a tribute that capped days of mourning in Arizona for John McCain, former Vice President Joe Biden said the senator exemplified values that will endure his passing.
Eulogizing his friend, with whom he traveled the world and on whom he leaned in times of personal pain, Biden spoke of the “McCain code,” values forged during his days in the Navy and lived every day afterward. Values that Biden said will endure.
With his voice rising inside the cavernous North Phoenix Baptist Church, Biden rejected the notion that McCain reflects the end of an era.
“Things have changed so much in America, they look at him as if John came from another age because he lived by a different code, an ancient, antiquated code where honor, courage, character, integrity, duty mattered,” Biden said.
“The truth is John’s code was ageless, is ageless. It wasn’t about politics with John. You could disagree on substance,” Biden added. “It was about the underlying values that animated everything John did.”
Biden said most of those who knew him will miss McCain’s character, but for the McCain family, they have lost the man in their lives.
For them, Biden spoke not just as a Washington colleague, but someone who has lost a loved one to cancer. Biden’s son Beau died of a similar brain cancer in 2015 at 46.
“For that, there is no balm but time,” he said. “Time and your memories of a life lived well, lived fully.”
McCain’s funeral drew 24 members of the U.S. Senate and more than 3,000 others whose lives he touched. It was the final public goodbye to Arizona for McCain, who died Saturday.
The service began with McCain’s daughter Bridget reading verses from Ecclesiastes: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, a time to die.”
Tommy Espinoza, president of the Raza Development Fund Inc., remembered McCain as a good friend who kept his word.
McCain paid his first personal visit to his home, Espinoza said, on what turned out to be McCain’s birthday. McCain asked Espinoza to co-chair his first Senate campaign knowing he was a Democrat.
And McCain showed an appreciation of the immigrant community, Espinoza said, adding in words with a political point:
“He did understand us. He understood all of us, whether it was white, black, brown or Asian. To him, it didn’t make any difference. What he knew is that we all make America great. We all make America great.”
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald also paid tribute to McCain, saying it was an honor to know him.
The McCain family has been part of the congregation of this church, at the southeast corner of Central Avenue and Bethany Home Road, for more than 25 years.
McCain attended the church for decades, though he was never baptized, according to a 2007 interview with McClatchy Newspapers. “I didn’t find it necessary to do so for my spiritual needs,” he said at the time.