Final public McCain farewell draws elite
Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama led the nation in bidding a final, public farewell to John McCain at his Washington funeral Saturday, the two former political rivals of the Arizona senator praising him as reflecting America at its best.
“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse, can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult, in phony controversies and manufactured outrage. It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but is in fact born of fear,” Obama said. “John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.”
Bush said if the country is “ever tempted to forget who we are,” or grows weary of its cause, “John’s voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder; We’re better than this. America is better than this.”
While the solemn ceremony featured tributes from globally known figures such as Bush, Obama and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain’s eulogy was, perhaps, one of the most powerful.
Her tearful remembrance recounted his bravery in battle and his endurance as a prisoner of war, but she focused on his role as a loving father and her pride in being his daughter. She also included barely veiled rebukes of President Donald Trump, who repeatedly clashed with the late senator and whose absence at the funeral was conspicuous.
“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, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege,’’ she said. “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.”
Trump was pointedly not invited to the funeral, according to the New York Times. As the event was underway, Trump tweeted about NAFTA and left the White House for Trump National Golf Club in Loudoun County, Va.
Mutual animosity
The animosity between McCain and Trump had been mutual, and they clashed often. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump — who received draft deferments during the Vietnam war — disparaged McCain’s POW status, saying he preferred people who were not captured. The president has since repeatedly criticized McCain for not providing the last vote needed in the Senate to repeal Obamacare last year.
This week, after McCain’s death, the American flag at the White House was lowered to half-staff and then raised to full position after a little over a day. Trump agreed to return it to halfstaff only after a barrage of criticism.
“I disagreed with many of the things that I assume he believed in. With that being said, I respect his service to the country,” Trump said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg News.
McCain died Aug. 25 at age 81 after a battle with brain cancer. He will be laid to rest Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where he graduated in 1958, after a private service at the academy’s chapel.