It is right out of Game of Thrones. The King is dead, the best friend craves power and fears he will lose it, so he does the unthinkable – invites the family of the fallen King’s worst enemy to attend his funeral.
An awful tale of betrayal, mistrust and, in the end, blatant power.
Such is what happened in the final days of the relationship between Sen. John McCain and his longtime sidekick Sen. Lindsey Graham.
At the funeral last September, most of official Washington was on hand to pay tribute to the fallen leader.
Everyone knew that President Trump, and anyone related to him, would not be invited.
“My father had been clear about the line between the McCains and the Trumps,” Meghan McCain told Stephen Colbert last night.
At the funeral, she delivered an unforgettable eulogy to her father:
“We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not the cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly.”
“I did say that,” said McCain. “And I mean it.”
McCain told Colbert she did not know Kushner and Ivanka would be attending the funeral.
“A funeral is obviously a sacred time, and I thought that my family had made it clear, or at least I had, that the Trumps were unwelcome around me,” she said.
So who invited them?
When that question started to swirl following the funeral, Lindsey Graham immediately denied it was him.
“Nobody was at that funeral that did not get invited by the family,” Graham insisted on CNN.
His office, however, soon admitted he helped “facilitate” the invitation.
Meghan McCain insists that invite did not come from the family.
“I was surprised when they were there, and it made me uncomfortable,” she said. “And I hope I made them uncomfortable, honestly, with everything.”
Her co-host on The View Sunny Hostin told Inside Edition:
“I can tell you that after speaking with Meghan and some of her close friends that the McCain family did not invite Jared and Ivanka,” said Hostin. “They didn’t.”
That means Graham has been lying.
For years as a news anchor, I covered Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.
He is first and foremost a politician, known for starting his congressional career by leading the impeachment of Bill Clinton.
During 2007 and 2008, I interviewed him several times along side McCain, his closest ally and constant companion, who was back in the state running for president.
Those were the years when Graham would discuss “character” and “truth telling” and would lead up to the time when he said about Donald Trump:
“You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”
Trump had mocked McCain’s long, brutal years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese, and his belittling never ceased.
Graham defended his old friend, until his brain cancer would force him into the final months of his life.
By the time of the funeral, the senior senator from South Carolina had started playing golf with Trump, and the shift to his new best friend had begun:
Trump International Golf Club is a spectacular golf course.
Great day of fun playing with @POTUS @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/92Xjk8d8B2
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 10, 2017
As to the 2020 presidential race, I believe President @realDonaldTrump will run for reelection and I intend to support him. https://t.co/vsExZ1XehG
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) April 19, 2018
Happy Birthday, Mr. President!
You’re keeping your promise to make America safer and more prosperous.
And unfortunately for me, you’re doing all this without losing a step in your golf game!@realDonaldTrump #TrumpBirthday pic.twitter.com/PJRa54FVAP
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 14, 2018
As the day of McCain’s funeral approached, Graham supplied Donald Trump with the gift of access: Inviting the presidents daughter and her husband to sneak into the biggest DC event of the year.
Against the wishes of his old friend and his family.
Forcing Meghan McCain to be uncomfortable at her own father’s funeral, even as she rebuked Trump, a man with which her father had feuded over policy and a man who had denigrated her father’s military service.
“The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,” Meghan said in the eulogy, with Kushner and Ivanka Trump looking on.
In the end, Lindsey Graham betrayed the trust of the McCain’s.
And showed the world that craving power isn’t just something you see in Game of Thrones.
I can’t believe how Lindsay Graham DESSERTED his close FRIEND JOHN MACainet to become a Trump backer.Lindsay is nothing but a showboater that is discusting!!John must be turning in his grave…GOD bless his family!! I cannot what is happening in AMERICA,I am a Canadian who spent every long weekend in the USA…I met a lot of good friends and still have them and they come to Canada to visit me when passing through. I truly hope the violence will stop you are a great Nation…LEARN TO LIVE IN HARMONY!My time in America was in the time 1972 …1994 America was Great!!!