Washington: Meghan McCain delivered a tearful and deeply personal eulogy for Sen. John McCain at his funeral Saturday morning – paying tribute to his devotion and tenderness as a father and family man. Her speech also included a defiant rebuke of President Donald Trump, thought she never mentioned him by name.
“We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness,” she said. “The real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly.”
In an apparent reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan, Meg-han added: “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.”
The line was met with applause. Meghan, a host on ABC’s The View, has been a vocal supporter and defender of her father – including taking on President Donald Trum-p’s repeated attacks on McCain.
Most of Meghan’s speech paid tribute to the John McCain few had the privilege to see, his private life with his
family.
“My father was a great man, a great warrior, a great American and I admired him for all of these thing, but I loved him because he was a great father,” she said.
Meghan shared personal anecdotes, including about the time she fell off a horse and broke her collarbone. She said her father – who spent more than five years enduring beatings and torture as a Prisoner of War in Vietnam – told her to be strong and reminded her, “Nothing is going to break you.”
It is advice she said she carries with her to this day.
“For the rest of my life, whenever I’d fall down, I’d get back up. Whenever I am hurt I drive on, whenever I am brought low, I rise,” she said.
Meghan spoke of her father’s sacrifices during the Vietnam War, but said his most important role was father.
“John McCain was not defined by prison, by the Navy, by the Senate, by the Republican Party or by any single one of the deeds in his absolutely extraordinary life. John McCain was defined by love,” she said.
Friends, family and colleagues gathered at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday to honor the life of the Arizona Republican, who died last Saturday at 81 after a battle with brain cancer.
The memorial service also featured tributes from former political rivals, former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
McCain was a decorated veteran who was held for more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Trump was notably absent, at McCain’s request. He left the White House for his golf club in Virginia and tweeted about NAFTA negotiations during the funeral service. Three former presidents, scores of members of Congress, current and former world leaders and family and friends have gathered Saturday morning to eulogise McCain as an American hero. Among those in the front row at the cathedral are Barack and Michelle Obama, George and Laura Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as Dick Cheney and Al Gore.
