Tributes to McCain echo with criticism of Trump

John McCain’s daughter opened his memorial service by posing her father’s legacy as a direct challenge to President Donald Trump.

She set a tone that echoed the senator’s own fighting spirit as former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush gave eulogies on Saturday at the Washington National Cathedral.

Mr Bush and Mr Obama, both challenged by Mr McCain in their bids for the White House, drew on the senator’s legacy at home and abroad to talk of the nation’s values in remarks that at times seemed a clear rebuke of Mr Trump and his brand of politics.

Mr Obama spoke of the long talks he and Mr McCain would have privately in the Oval Office and the senator’s understanding that America’s security and influence came not from “our ability to bend others to our will” but universal values of rule of law and human rights.

“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, tracking in bombast and insult and phoney controversies and manufactured outrage,” Mr Obama said in another not-so-veiled nod to Mr Trump.

“It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born in fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.”

Mr Bush said one of the great gifts in his life was becoming friends with his former White House rival.

He said they would in later years recall their political battles like former football players remembering the big game.

But mostly Mr Bush recalled a champion for the “forgotten people” at home and abroad whose legacy would serve as a reminder, even in times of doubt, of the power of America as more than a physical place but a “carrier of human aspirations”.

“John’s voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder — we are better than this, America is better than this,” Mr Bush said.

Mr Bush, a Republican, and Mr Obama, a Democrat, spoke during the service at Mr McCain’s request.

Mr Trump was not on hand for the ceremony, after Mr McCain’s family made clear he was not invited.

But Meghan McCain made sure Mr Trump was part of the memorial in another way, levelling pointed criticism at the president in her eulogy.

“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,” she said, her voice first choking back tears then raising to anger.

Later, she said to applause: “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.”

In another clear swipe at Mr Trump, she said some resented her father for being “a great fire who burned bright” and what he revealed about their own characters.

Those critics, she said, still have an opportunity to emulate her father’s legacy.

Those gathered on Saturday to remember the six-term senator included three former presidents, scores of members of Congress, current and former world leaders and family and friends.

Among those in the front row were Barack and Michelle Obama, George and Laura Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as Dick Cheney and Al Gore.

Mr McCain’s motorcade arrived from the Capitol, where he laid in state overnight, and the procession made a stop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where Mr McCain’s wife, Cindy, placed a wreath.

His flag-draped coffin was escorted by military bearers up the cathedral steps under grey skies.

It was the last public event in Washington, where Mr McCain lived and worked for four decades, and part of Mr McCain’s five-day, cross-country funeral procession.

He died on August 25 aged 81.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, left the White House in the presidential motorcade shortly after 10.30am, as the service was under way, headed to his Virginia golf course.

Two of his top aides, White House chief of staff John Kelly and Defence Secretary James Mattis, flanked Cindy McCain as she placed the wreath at the memorial and joined the service.

Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner also attended.

Mr McCain is to be buried Sunday at his alma mater, the US Naval Academy, next to his best friend from the class of 1958, Admiral Chuck Larson.

“Back,” McCain wrote on the last page of his recent memoir, “where it began.”