Family, colleagues and supporters gathered at the Arizona State Capitol this morning to honor the late Sen. John McCain.
The memorial service in Phoenix is the first of a days-long procession for McCain, who died on Saturday after battling an aggressive form of brain cancer for more than a year.
Speakers at the memorial, which included McCain’s current and former colleagues, touted his military service during the Vietnam War and support for the Defense Department during his time in Congress.
“John McCain believed in America. He believed in its people, its values and its institutions,” said former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). “I consider it a great privilege to have served with John and I will miss him as a friend and as a strong force for America in the world.”
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) praised McCain as an individual who pushed himself, and urged others, to serve an interest bigger than themselves.
“His talk of country first wasn’t simply a slogan on a yard sign. It was what John McCain had done and demonstrated over and over and over again,” he said. “He fought like hell for the causes he believed in.”
Ducey touted McCain’s independence and ties to his “adoptive” state.
“‘Arizona has enchanted and claimed me,’ he wrote,” Ducey said. “But in reality we were the ones who were privileged. Privileged to have John McCain fighting for us.”
“Imagining an Arizona without John McCain is just not natural,” he added.
McCain’s motorcade arrived at the state capitol just before 1 p.m. ET. His casket, covered with an American flag, was retrieved by a team from the Arizona National Guard and taken into the state’s rotunda, where he will lie in state for the rest of the day.
Cindy McCain, McCain’s wife, followed behind the casket and was escorted by their sons, Jack McCain and Jimmy McCain. Meghan McCain, their daughter, cried throughout the ceremony and stood weeping in front of McCain’s casket.
The service marks the beginning of a days-long public send off for McCain. The public is expected to start being allowed into the Arizona Capitol Rotunda around 2 p.m., and the Capitol is expected to remain open until the public finishes paying their respects.