“The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again, because America was always great.”
The words from Meghan McCain, spoken at the funeral for her father, Sen. John McCain. A clear rebuke of Donald Trump and his campaign rhetoric.
“He was a great man,” Meghan McCain said during 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.”
For two hours this morning McCain’s funeral was a reminder of the pre-Trump era. Former presidents Bush, Clinton and Obama, vice presidents Dick Cheney, Al Gore and Joe Biden, former cabinet members, congressional colleagues and family all gathered to mark the passing of a man who so clearly embodied an American hero.
President Trump was about the only major American political figure missing. He had not been invited, instead traveling to his Virginia golf club.
Former President George W. Bush praised McCain’s disdain for authoritarian leaders, saying he “detested the abuse of power” both at home and abroad.
“Above all, John detested the abuse of power. He could not abide bigots and swaggering despots,” said Bush. “One friend from his Naval Academy days recalled how John, while a lowly plebe, reacted to seeing an upperclassman verbally abuse a steward. Against all tradition, he told the jerk to pick on someone his own size. It was a familiar refrain during his six decades of service.”
Former President Obama praised McCain’s ability to transcend partisan fights, saying the longtime Arizona senator called on Americans to be “bigger” than politics based on “fear.”
“So much of our politics, public life, public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast, and insult, and phony controversies, and manufactured outrage,” Obama said. “It’s the politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born of fear,” Obama said. “John called on us to be bigger 
than that. He called on us to be better than that.”
Former Sen. Joe Lieberman defended his friend and former colleague for voting against the Republican ObamaCare repeal last year.
“When John returned to the Senate after his surgery last summer and voted against the Republican health-care bill, some people accused him of being disloyal to his party and the president,” Lieberman said. “But that was not the case. That speech made clear that his vote was not against that bill but against the mindless partisanship that has taken control in both of our political parties and our government and produced totally one-sided responses to complicated national problems like health care. And, of course, he was right.”
The farewell for McCain was a giant who’s who of American politics, entertainment and media. Those attending, included:
Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, former Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Gary Hart (D-Colo.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Bill Bradley
(D-N.J.), Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta sitting next to Ash Carter, Bill Cohen, John Kerry, Madeleine Albright, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Dick and Lynne Cheney, Justice Anthony Kennedy, David Petraeus, Stephen Hadley, Mitt and Ann Romney, Tom Ridge, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, John Bolton, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Kevin Hassett, U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. Woody Johnson, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, Rick Davis, Carl Bernstein, Les Moonves and Julie Chen, Sally Quinn …
… Greta Van Susteren and John Coale, Harris Faulkner, Josh Rogin, Robert and Elena Allbritton, Jeff Bezos, Fred Smith, Amanda Bennett and Don Graham, Tom Brokaw, Jake and Jennifer Tapper, Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al-Otaiba, Qatari Ambassador to the U.S. Meshal Hamad Al-Thani, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer, Abbe Lowell, Dana Milbank, Tom Malinowski, former Georgian President Misha Saakashvili, former Estonian President Toomas Ilves, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Richard Haass, Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, Max Boot, Michael Gordon, Leon Wieseltier, Abby Huntsman, Bill Browder, Tucker Bounds, Kristina Wong …
… Jay Carney, Walter Isaacson, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Abby Blunt, Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Kurt Volker, Lanny Wiles, Martin Indyk, Gahl Burt, Brian Rogers, Jay Leno, Rudy Giuliani, Bill Kristol, Ken Mehlman, Dikembe Mutombo, Jim VandeHei, Paul Wolfowitz, former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Ky.) and former Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Clay Aiken, Harry and Florence Sloan and Janet Langhart.
McCain will be buried at the Naval Academy in Maryland tomorrow.
