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Meghan McCain slays Trump in father’s eulogy: ‘America was always great’

Picture of a bible, cross and a rainbow flag
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Meghan McCain buried Donald Trump at her father’s funeral today in a way only she could do.

“The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,’ the 33-year-old told the crowd at Washington National Cathedral. “We gather 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.”

Fighting through tears to deliver her speech, she persisted.

“He was a great fire who burned bright,” she said. “A few have resented that fire for that light it cast upon them, for the truth it revealed about their character, but my father never cared what they thought. And even that small number still have the opportunity, as long as they draw breath, to live up to the example of John McCain.”

Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush were in attendance at the invitation-only event. Noticeably absent was Trump. He was not invited. Both Obama and Bush delivered their own remarks while Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner sat in the pews.

Uninvited but still there was a group from Westboro Baptist Church who held signs that read, “MOST PEOPLE GO TO HELL.”

Around 8:40 a.m. EST, a motorcade carrying McCain’s coffin left Capitol Hill making a stop along the journey at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. McCain’s wife, Cindy, laid a wreath in honor of her fallen husband, who died of brain cancer just last week. Joining her were Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, among others.

McCain was a naval aviator who was held in captivity for five and a half years as a prisoner of war – a detail Trump has chastised over the years and throughout his campaign.

Trump routinely mocked McCain’s imprisonment in the Vietnam War, saying: “I like people that weren’t captured.”

“He embodied what all these men fought for,” said Cyndy Hollender-Stancliff, a volunteer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

For his part, Trump spent the morning paying tribute on Twitter – to himself.

McCain was a six-term senator who, although not always a favorite in the LGBTQ community, was a respected member of Congress. In 2000, he ran against Bush for the Republican presidential nomination. He later clinched the GOP’s 2008 nomination, but ultimately faltered to Obama, who would serve out his two terms are POTUS.

Additional guests at McCain’s funeral included Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, Madeleine Albright, David Petraeus, Jay Leno, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, and other dignitaries.

“Generations of Americans will continue to marvel at the man who lies before us, the cocky, handsome naval aviator who barely scraped through school, and then fought for freedom in the skies; who witnessed to our highest values, even through terrible torture; and who became a generational leader in the United States Senate, where our nation airs its great debates,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said.

Biden noted that McCain’s “legacy is going to continue to inspire generations.”

McCain will be laid to rest tomorrow at the U.S. Naval Academy next to his best friend from the Class of 1958, Adm. Chuck Larson.

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