A bipartisan farewell to John McCain

Mourners from both sides of the aisle gathered Saturday morning at the Washington National Cathedral to remember Sen. John McCain, who died one week ago from brain cancer at age 81.

The memorial service, which touched more on politics than faith, began with an impassioned tribute from the late senator’s daughter Meghan McCain, who set the tone with her not-so-veiled comments contrasting her father with President Donald Trump, who was not invited.

“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, choking back tears.

Before he died, McCain asked a former president from each party to deliver a eulogy: In their remarks, George W. Bush and Barack Obama remembered McCain as a tough but fair competitor who left a legacy that contrasted with current state of politics.

“John’s voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder—we are better than this, America is better than this,” said Bush, who added that he and McCain would often recall their political battles like old football players remembering the big games.

Obama followed his White House predecessor in much the same vein, saying, “So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, tracking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage. 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.”

Several members of the Trump administration attended the funeral, including Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The president, who was a frequent and vocal critic of McCain, left the White House during the service to play golf at his Trump National Golf Club, Washington, D.C., in Potomac Falls, Va.

McCain will be buried tomorrow at the U.S. Naval Academy cemetery in Annapolis, Md.