Funeral and memorial plans for the late US Senator John McCain were taking shape on Sunday, a day after the Arizona Republican died of brain cancer at 81. McCain will lie in state in the Arizona State Capitol on Wednesday — the day on which he would have turned 82. Thursday A funeral will be conducted at North Phoenix Baptist Church in Arizona, and former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to speak. Friday McCain will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington. There will be a formal ceremony and time for the public to pay respects. Advertisement Saturday The procession will pass the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and head to a funeral at Washington National Cathedral. Sunday A private funeral is planned at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Who will attend the funeral? Vice President Mike Pence is likely to attend, said two White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. Who’s not attending? McCain had long feuded with President Trump, and the two anonymous White House officials said McCain’s family had asked, before the senator’s death, that Trump not attend the funeral services. Trump, meanwhile, reportedly nixed issuing a statement that praised McCain’s heroism and life, telling senior aides he preferred to issue a tweet. Trump posted to Twitter Saturday night, but did not include any kind words for the late senator.) Who will speak at the service? Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who blocked McCain’s own White House ambitions, are among those expected to speak at McCain’s funeral. ‘‘These were bitter contests, both of them,’’ said Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, and ‘‘to ask them to speak at your funeral, and for them to be honored at the opportunity, that tells you all you need to know.’’ Flake told CBS’ ‘‘Face the Nation’’ that McCain ‘‘was quick to forgive — certainly put the good of the country above himself, and the fact that his former opponents will be there speaking says all we need to know.’’ Advertisement Wire material from the Associated Press and the Washington Post was used in this report.<doc-sep>Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. will brief the media on Tuesday, Aug. 28, at 10 a.m. EDT, in the Pentagon Briefing Room (2E973). DAILY SCHEDULE: Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. brief the media at 10 a.m. EDT in the Pentagon Briefing Room (2E973). Both U.S. and foreign journalists without a Pentagon building pass must be pre-registered in the new Pentagon Visitor Management System to attend this briefing; plan on being escorted from the River Entrance Pedestrian Bridge or the Pentagon Metro Entrance Facility only. Please arrive no later than 45 minutes before the briefing; have proof of affiliation and photo identification. Please call 703-697-5131 for any questions and escort into the building. The briefing will also be streamed live on www.defense.gov/live. Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis hosts an enhanced honor cordon welcoming Minister of Defense Ryamizard Ryacudu of Indonesia, to the Pentagon at 2:30 p.m. EDT on the steps of the River Entrance. All journalists desiring to cover the cordon must obtain a wristband from security screening. Journalists without a Pentagon facility access card must go through security screening at the base of the River Entrance Pedestrian Bridge, and will be escorted to the cordon from there. Security screening will begin at approximately 1:45 p.m. EDT; have proof of affiliation and two forms of photo identification. Journalists with a Pentagon facility access card, and whom have entered the building prior to 1:30 p.m. EDT, may go through security screening at the River Entrance to obtain their wristband. All journalists wishing to cover the honor cordon, including those with a Pentagon facility access card, must be in place no later than 2:15 p.m. EDT. Once security screening has been initiated at the base of the bridge, all journalists entering the building via the bridge for any reason, including those with a Pen WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 1: Cindy McCain looks on as a joint military service casket team carries the casket of the late Senator John McCain following his funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral, September 1, 2018 in Washington, DC. Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered eulogies for McCain in front of the 2,500 invited guests. McCain will be buried on Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) YORK, PA - AUGUST 12: Republican Presidential Candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) speaks at a Town Hall Meeting while on the campaign trail in the Toyota Arena August 12, 2008 in York, Pennsylvania. Over one thousand people attended the Town Hall. (Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images) (CNN) — John McCain and President Donald Trump are not done with one another yet. Days of mourning for the Arizona senator, including a lying-in-state in the Capitol Rotunda and the pomp of a service in Washington’s National Cathedral, are certain to become about more than simply honoring a singular political leader and national hero. In Washington, even death is political – a fact McCain well understood as a sought-after eulogizer himself, and by planning his funeral rites to exclude the President, he will be making an unmistakable posthumous statement directed at the White House. Tributes for McCain and the lauding of his courage, honor, decency, character, and readiness to reexamine his own mistakes will unfold at a time when Trump is facing an unflattering public debate about his own personality and behavior. The guilty plea by the President’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen and conviction of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort last week deepened the political and legal storm raging around the White House – but still did not push most Republican leaders to criticize Trump. In that context, the ceremonies marking McCain’s passing seem sure to become more than a lament for a departed political giant. They are likely to become a debate about political morality and the comportment and principles expected of public figures in an already polarized political age that has been further roiled by Trump’s disruptive influence. After two losing presidential campaigns, McCain never made it to the Oval Office – yet he is getting an emotional sendoff and assessment that might befit one of the men who did become President. CNN has reported that McCain chose Barack Obama and George W. Bush – the two men who kept him from the White House – to eulogize him and didn’t want the President to attend his funeral. If those plans hold, McCain will be sending a clear final message to Trump, after making clear when he was alive that he saw the President’s demeanor, populist style and global outlook as antithetical to America’s founding values and global role. The antipathy between the Arizona senator and the President has not been stilled by his death on Saturday from brain cancer. What the President says and doesn’t say In normal circumstances, a President could be expected to issue a fulsome written statement to mark the passing of such an important political figure. Trump simply wrote a tweet, and while members of his immediate family praised McCain’s character and contribution, he did not. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Trump decided against issuing a statement praising McCain’s Senate career and military service as a Vietnam prisoner of war. The paper said that press secretary Sarah Sanders and White House chief of staff John Kelly advocated calling the Arizona senator a “hero.” “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!” Trump wrote on Twitter. McCain’s service at the National Cathedral may well become the biggest meeting of the political establishment and visiting global elites so far seen during the Trump presidency. The President’s absence and failure to lead a grateful nation in mourning would, for McCain, eloquently reflect the fracture with the traditional ruling classes that he successfully made the focus of his 2016 campaign and that has become a motif of his presidency. But Mark Salter, McCain’s longtime speechwriter and confidant, told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie Monday that the senator’s circle did not want the week to become all about the President. “I’m going to try very hard not to think or talk about Donald Trump for this week and just do what I can to help make sure John is buried with the honors and decorum he’s earned from years of faithful service to this country,” Salter said. Not being invited to preside over a great national occasion will surely sting for a man like Trump, who relishes the theatrics of the presidency. Still, there might be a political upside, since some of his devoted base voters viewed McCain as a political relic, especially following the President’s frequent attacks on the Arizona senator. Putting the debate about Trump’s behavior aside, the gathering of establishment clans may also serve as an epitaph not just for McCain, but for the brand of conservatism that he favored. McCain, a Cold Warrior, was a disciple of President Ronald Reagan and adopted the later neoconservative assertiveness of the George W. Bush years. Trump, by contrast, has cozied up to Vladimir Putin, the former KGB man who is seeking to revive some of Russia’s Soviet-era influence. The President has hammered Western institutions like NATO and the European Union that helped win the Cold War, he decries the Middle East conflicts that McCain advocated, and he believes the global trading system is rigged against the United States. Weeks before a midterm elections, and with the next presidential race already stirring, remembrances of McCain will showcase the kind of values and policies that the Republican icon shared with his establishment contemporaries. Public remembrance with subtle – and not so subtle – jabs<doc-sep>“We’re getting nothing done, my friends. We’re getting nothing done.” It was a few days before the historic Obamacare repeal vote, and Republicans desperately needed John McCain. “It was a dramatic and consequential return for John McCain to the Senate floor.” “What a dramatic morning this is turning out to be, with John McCain making that surprise return to Washington.” “And McCain’s vote is going to give leadership a lot more breathing room.” But the maverick of the Senate had just been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and he was playing hard to get. “We’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues, because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle.” But would he vote with his party, or would he defect? “I will not vote for this bill as it is today.” This was the kind of moment that John McCain lives for. He is going to be the deciding vote, and he’s got control of a major piece of legislation in his hand. “You heard John McCain. A really historic moment. Trying to set a new tone when it comes to fixing our health care system.” When you go against the grain in Washington, you get a lot of attention. “Shutting down the government injured the people of my state. Why? Why would we want to do that?” John McCain had a big ego, and he liked the attention. But also, I do think that the maverick aspect to McCain was real. He saw a lot of the things that went on in Washington as semi-idiotic, or corrupt. “I think the Congress of the United States — both Republicans and Democrats — should be ashamed of themselves. These may be worthy projects. They may be. Generally they aren’t. How many more lawmakers, staffers, government officials, and contractors have to go to jail before we actually fix this process?” He liked challenging authority. It may be part of that is just growing up in a military family and having all that military experience, where you’re subject to so much authority. “I have trouble with this. More than two-syllable words —” In the political phase of his life, he was willing to step up, take a chance, and shake up the system. “Eleven million people live in the shadows, and they live here in de facto amnesty, and, by God, they are being exploited every single day.” Of course, he switched back and forth when it suited his politics. “We will secure the borders first when I am president of the United States. I am proud that Republicans are the party of lower taxes. I cannot in good conscience vote in favor of tax cuts.” There have been so many John McCains over the years. He came to Congress as this exalted war hero who’d already had a national reputation because of his time as a P.O.W. in Vietnam. McCain was shot down, held for years in terrible conditions in the Hanoi Hilton. He had a high profile because of his father. “The commander in chief of our Pacific forces, Admiral John S. McCain Jr.” “As you know, we are living in a troubled world —” They knew that they had something of a celebrity prisoner there. He was tortured, subjected to really unthinkable experiences. He resisted and resisted, but ultimately did make a confession. That really haunted him through the rest of his life. He felt that he had caved and betrayed his country. When he returned from Vietnam, to much acclaim, he was an ambitious guy, and he quickly turned to politics. “John McCain, a name Arizonans are talking about.” He ran for the House. Came in as a pretty conventional conservative — somebody who wanted to get on board the Reagan Revolution. “Speaker, like a poor fellow who brought his horse to water but could not make it drink, Walter Mondale proposes to throw more tax money at the deficit with little chance of making it shrink.” But there was a watershed moment coming for John McCain — “— a major congressional scandal —” The Keating Five Scandal. “Charles Keating, a millionaire banker who has come to embody the savings and loan scandal —” A group of senators — a bipartisan group — had interceded on behalf of a big businessman, and they tried to help him out of a regulatory problem. It was a big scandal at the moment, because the S&L crisis was huge back then. “Do you swear under oath to this committee you were unaware of that at the time?” McCain was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing. “But I understand why the committee made the arrangements they did.” He thought it be besmirched his honor, which is probably the most important thing to John McCain besides his family, is his honor. This was a searing experience for McCain, and it really helped shape his later image as a maverick, because he immediately became someone, I think, who wanted to shake up the system and rein in the influence of money and politics. “There’s too much money washing around, and this money makes good people do bad things, and bad people do worse things.” John McCain was ready to do that. His party really wasn’t. They liked the campaign system the way it was, particularly Mitch McConnell. “To effectively discuss issues in this country, one must have access to money.” He was the leading foe of John McCain. “Who do you want to be the next president of these United States? McCain! That’s right.” So McCain had presidential ambitions. 2000 seemed like a good opportunity for him. This was the year of the famous Straight Talk Express. He was really letting it hang out in a lot of ways. “If I were a tree, I would be a —” “If I were a tree, I would be a root. What does that mean? I’d be glad to tell you —” But he ran into a real buzzsaw with the Bush family and Karl Rove. “Let me finish. Let me finish.” “All right, then.” The Bush campaign did some really tough negative advertising. “McCain’s campaign is crawling with lobbyists.” “His conservative hometown paper warns — It’s time the rest of the nation learns about the McCain we know.” McCain was stung when he came back to the Senate, you could tell. “Gentlemen —” “Senator John McCain, the Republican, and Senator Barack Obama, the —” In 2008, this was really John McCain’s last opportunity. He took the nomination, but he was really in trouble from the start. Obama, the celebrity candidate, the economic collapse — “The fundamentals of our economy are strong —” — picking Sarah Palin as his running mate. “This is absolutely overwhelming.” People really questioned John McCain’s judgment on that. Even at the end, McCain was still fighting the leaders of his party. “Yesterday, I received a call from President Putin of Russia —” Being cozy with the Russians, pulling back in Asia. To John McCain, this was anathema. He wouldn’t mention Trump by name, but he would talk about failures of American foreign policy and the conduct. “— refuse the obligations of international leadership for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.” This was amped up more after the diagnosis of brain cancer. I think that was also part of his vote on the health care repeal. At the climactic moment, he walked out onto the floor, turned thumbs down, and killed the repeal effort. It was one of his last big acts as a U.S. senator. “Making news in the 11th hour —” “The resistance to President Trump had its biggest victory yet.” “This is a major defeat.” “You could look at this one moment like a Renaissance painting.” “It was unbelievable.” McCain wasn’t going to go quietly.<doc-sep>
Details about John McCain’s funeral services have been announced after the longtime Arizona senator died on Saturday. McCain, who died roughly a year after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, was 81. McCain will lie in state in both the Arizona Capitol and the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday and Friday, respectively, before his burial in a private service in Annapolis on Sunday, a McCain family spokesperson confirmed on Monday. Here’s what we know so far about McCain’s memorial services and funeral, as tributes to the lawmaker and war hero continue to pour in. Services will begin in Arizona on Wednesday McCain will be memorialized at ceremonies in Arizona and Washington, D.C. this week. The late senator will first lie in state at the Arizona State Capitol, where a private ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. PST on Wednesday, which would have been McCain’s 82nd birthday. “Only John McCain could rig a big birthday celebration for himself, like this,” McCain family spokesperson Rick Davis said at a press conference on Monday. Former Sen. Jon Kyl, who has been discussed as a possible successor for McCain, will make remarks. And Sen. Jeff Flake will give a benediction. Members of the public will be invited to pay their respects at the State Capitol from 1 p.m. through 8 p.m. PST on Wednesday. “I have reassurances that as long as there are people in line to file through to see John, the capitol will remain open,” Davis said Monday. On Thursday, a memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. PST at the North Phoenix Baptist Church, where former Vice President Joe Biden and others will give tributes to McCain. There will then be a small private ceremony at Sky Harbor Airport on Thursday, witnessed by active duty Arizona National Guard members, as McCain departs Arizona for the last time. McCain will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol McCain will lie in state at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Friday, where a ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. EST. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will present wreaths during the service. Members of the public will be allowed to pay their respects from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m EST. McCain will become the 13th senator to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, an honor reserved for the nation’s “most eminent citizens,” according to the Architect of the Capitol. “The nation mourns the loss of a great American patriot, a statesman who put his country first and enriched this institution through many years of service. The Senate is keeping Cindy, the McCain family, all John’s friends and staff, and the people of Arizona in our prayers at this tremendously difficult time,” McConnell said in a statement confirming the senator would lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. “I appreciate my colleagues and the entire Senate and House family’s assistance with this honor.” On Saturday, the McCain family will escort the late senator along Pennsylvania Avenue to the Vietnam War Memorial, where they will place a wreath in his honor. At 10 a.m. EST, there will be another memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral “focused on his national and global leadership,” Davis said. McCain’s children will deliver a tribute and read a poem. Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former President George W. Bush and former President Barack Obama will all deliver remarks at the National Cathedral. McCain’s office said a livestream will be available for the services at the North Phoenix Baptist Church, the U.S. Capitol and the Washington National Cathedral. Two former presidents will eulogize McCain Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush — who both defeated McCain in presidential contests — are slated to speak at McCain’s service at the National Cathedral, Davis said at Monday’s press conference. “These were bitter contests, both of them,” Flake told the AP.