Washington: The daughter of late Sen. John McCain on Saturday took aim at the President of the US in an emotional eulogy at the Washington National Cathedral.
In her remarks, she praised her father and contrasted his life with that of Donald Trump, Efe reported.
“He was a great man,” Meghan McCain said of the two-time presidential candidate, long-time member of the US’s upper house of Congress representing Arizona and chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee from 2015 until his death of brain cancer last Saturday.
“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 while he suffered and served.”
Those remarks clearly were targeted at Trump, who received five deferments excusing him from military duty during the Vietnam War.
John McCain, for his part, was well-known for his military service in the Vietnam War and particularly for having been held prisoner for five years and tortured by his captors.
Meghan McCain, the co-host of the American talk show “The View,” also used her remarks to criticize Trump’s slogan during his presidential campaign – “Make America Great Again.”
“The America of John McCain is generous and welcoming and bold. She is resourceful and confident and secure. She meets her responsibilities. She speaks quietly because she is strong. America does not boast because she has no need. The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,”
In May, the New York Times reported that those close to McCain had told the White House that Vice President Mike Pence would be welcome to attend the senator’s funeral but that Trump would not be.
During his campaign, Trump mocked McCain’s service in Vietnam, saying, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured? I like people who weren’t captured.”
The two men’s relationship remained rocky after the real estate mogul’s surprise victory in the 2016 presidential election.
One of the most tense episodes came in July of last year, when McCain – shortly after making public his brain cancer diagnosis – joined just two other GOP colleagues in voting against a Republican-proposed bill that would have repealed certain aspects of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, a US health-care overhaul popularly known as “Obamacare.”
Meghan McCain was the first speaker at Saturday’s memorial service for the late senator at the Washington National Cathedral.
Also scheduled to deliver eulogies on Saturday are two former presidents, Barack Obama (who defeated McCain in the 2008 presidential election) and George W. Bush (who beat out McCain in the race for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination).
One other former US president, Bill Clinton, also was in attendance at the memorial service on Saturday, as was his wife Hillary Clinton and numerous foreign dignataries.
Several people close to Trump also were in the audience for the ceremony, including his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, as well as White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis.
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