Meghan McCain Gives Tearful Eulogy For Her Dad John, 'He Was Defined By Love'
Sept. 1 2018, Published 2:23 p.m. ET
Meghan McCain gave an emotional tribute to her late father John at his Saturday, Sept 1 memorial service.
The View star delivered her eulogy at Washington's National Cathedral through tears, and took a shot at President Donald Trump, who had a bitter feud with the Arizona Senator!
"The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great," she said before the crowd at her father's memorial. The audience applauded!
Trump famously said he liked veterans who had NOT been captured during his 2016 Presidential campaign, shocking former Vietnam POW John's family and friends. The comment ignited a war that has never ended, even as John was laid to rest.
John had banned Trump from his funeral before dying of brain cancer at age 81 on Saturday, August 25.
But Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner attended the memorial along with three former Presidents and First Ladies--Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, and George W. and Laura Bush.
Crying Meghan said bitterly during her eulogy, "He was a great man. 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 live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served. He was a great fire who burned bright."
Meghan continued, in a clear shot at the current President, "A few have resented that fire for the 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."
The sobbing The View star said, "My father was a great man, he was a great warrior, he was a great American."
Meghan also shared how loving he was as a father.
He gently carried her to bed as a little girl, Meghan recalled and remembered him "kissing the hurt when I fell and skinned my knee…singing with his little girl in Oak Creek during a rain storm to 'Singin' in the Rain.' "
Meghan had to collect herself before continuing to praise his "wisdom and courage," and how he was thrilled at her marriage.
"I know who he was," she cried. "John McCain was defined by love.
"He was always teaching."
Meghan began her tribute to her father by telling the crowd, "The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it. When Ernest Hemingway's Robert Jordan, at the close of For Whom the Bell Tolls lies wounded and waiting for his last fight, these are among his final thoughts. My father had every reason to think the world was an awful place. My father had every reason to think the world was not worth fighting for. My father had every reason to think the world was worth leaving," she said of the his POW days.
"He did not think any of those things. Like the hero of his famous book, John McCain took the opposite view. You had to have a lot of luck to have had such a good life."
Meghan sobbed, "I am here before you saying the words I have never wanted to say, giving the speech I have never wanted to give. My father is gone."
"Dad I love you. I always have."
Her father always taught her, "Nothing is going to break you," Meghan emotionally said.
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