Washington honors McCain at funeral

Former presidents, vice presidents, and officials from the current and former administrations gathered on Saturday at the funeral for the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Former Presidents Obama, Clinton and George W. Bush were in attendance at the Washington National Cathedral, along with Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush, as well as former Vice Presidents Joe Biden, Dick Cheney and Al Gore.

George W. Bush in his eulogy said of McCain that “in one epic life was written the courage and greatness of our country” and noted “presidents were not spared” McCain’s commitment to honesty.

Obama said McCain “liked being unpredictable, even a little contrarian” and called on Americans to be “bigger” than the “bombast,” “phony controversies” and “manufactured outrage” of politics.

{mosads}The Trump administration was represented by the president’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Defense Secretary James Mattis, chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser John Bolton, as well as President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Trump himself was not invited.

Bipartisan lawmakers and foreign leaders were also in attendance at the event, which precedes McCain’s burial Sunday at his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

Additional speakers included McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain, who contrasted her father’s “American greatness” with “cheap rhetoric”; former senator and close McCain friend Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who offered humorous anecdotes and a defense of McCain’s vote against the GOP’s health-care reform bill last summer; and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who called McCain a “gift of destiny.”

Prior to the funeral, McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, laid a wreath on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial not far away in Washington, D.C. McCain served in the Vietnam War as a Navy pilot. In 1967, he was shot down, captured and held hostage for more than five years.

McCain died of brain cancer on Aug. 25 at age 81.

— Updated 12:11 p.m.