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 Obama on McCain: We are all in his debt McCain will be buried next to his 'wingman' 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) (CNN) — Fed up with television coverage of Sen. John McCain’s death and eager to continue promoting his agenda, President Donald Trump remained silent for most of Monday about the Vietnam War veteran being honored by the rest of Washington. Late in the day, and after urging from senior aides, he relented, offering brief plaudits for the recently passed lawmaker in a statement after responding to questions earlier only with silence. “Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country,” Trump wrote in the four-paragraph statement, which dealt mainly in the logistical details he’d approved for the week-long remembrance ceremonies. Later, while meeting with evangelical leaders in the State Dining Room, Trump said in prepared remarks, “Our hearts and prayers are going to the family of Senator John McCain. There’s going to be a lot of activity over the next number of days. And we very much appreciate everything that Senator McCain has done for our country.” It was a more robust effort at commemorating the late lawmaker than Trump offered on Sunday and for most of Monday. During a string of appearances before reporters, the President maintained his silence, choosing to ignore questions about the late Arizona Republican. Trump was urged by senior level staffers, including chief of staff John Kelly, to deliver a more robust statement on McCain starting early Monday morning, but he resisted and maintained that he would not alter his planned schedule because of McCain’s death. Trump told some advisers he believed the television coverage of McCain’s death was over the top, according to one person familiar with internal deliberations. As the day proceeded, aides continued to press him to at least address the matter of the White House flags. After facing criticism for raising the flags to full staff after lowering them on Saturday, he relented on that issue, and released the statement detailing the logistical items he’d approved for McCain’s remembrance ceremonies. Press secretary Sarah Sanders was heavily involved in the discussions and helped develop the statement Trump released. Asked what had changed and why the proclamation was issued Monday, Sanders would only say it was the “President’s decision to do and the statement speaks for itself.” Trump also wrote in the statement that he asked Vice President Mike Pence to deliver remarks at a ceremony celebrating McCain’s life in the US Capitol on Friday. And he listed the officials – including Kelly, Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser John Bolton – he had tasked with representing the administration at funeral services. Trump had come under harsh criticism for his apparent lack of compassion for the late senator. The national commander of the American Legion, a large veterans’ organization, wrote in a statement, “I strongly urge you to make an appropriate presidential proclamation noting Senator McCain’s death and legacy of service to our nation, and that our nation’s flag be half-staffed through his interment.” A spokesman for the American Legion said the organization heard from a White House staffer after Trump’s proclamation who thanked the veterans’ group for its pointed statement. “We were happy to see the White House move in the right direction,” American Legion spokesman Joe Plenzler said. “It’s symbolic. But it’s important.” A source close to the White House said other staffers had been privately hoping that Trump would change his mind about releasing a full, respectful statement honoring McCain along with the proclamation ordering flags to fly at half-staff. A separate White House official said other aides were glad the flags were finally lowered with the proclamation issued Monday afternoon. Republican operatives on Capitol Hill and others close to the White House were sharply critical of the mixed signals following McCain’s passing. One top GOP congressional aide described the episode as an “unforced error,” while a source close to the White House said the West Wing’s handling of McCain’s death on Monday “defies logic.” Questioned midmorning whether he believed McCain – a former Navy pilot who was shot down over Vietnam – was a hero, Trump remained stone-faced behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office after announcing a trade breakthrough with Mexico. Later, walking along the Rose Garden toward the Oval Office with his Kenyan counterpart, he stared straight ahead when asked for any thoughts on the late lawmaker. Once inside, he ignored questions again while White House press aides shouted over reporters who were inquiring about McCain. Moments later in the Cabinet Room, a similar scene played out. “Thank you very much,” Trump said after the questions continued coming. Kelly, who was later announced as one of the administration’s representatives at McCain’s services, stood nearby. Pence, assigned to speak at a service in the Capitol Building on Friday, sat alongside Trump. As he bid farewell to President Uhuru Kenyatta at the West Wing, the President again declined to answer when pitched a question on McCain. It had amounted to a deafening silence for a President who openly feuded with McCain, even as the senator was dying from brain cancer. Trump sent a cursory tweet on Saturday – “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!” – but did not offer any words about the man himself. A more fulsome statement had been prepared for Trump earlier in the weekend, but it was never released. And the presidential proclamation that would require flags on federal buildings lowered to half-staff was sent almost two days after McCain’s death. That left Trump the odd man out in a capital city overflowing with remembrances of the onetime Republican standard-bearer.<doc-sep>No matter the evidence, “still the conspiracy theorists hock their wares,” he wrote in 2009, introducing a book refuting 9/11 conspiracy notions. “They ignore the methods of science, the protocols of investigation and the dictates of logic. The conspiracy theorists chase any bit of information, no matter how flimsy, and use it to fit their preordained conclusions. They ascribe to the government, or to some secretive group, powers wholly out of proportion to what the evidence suggests. And they ignore the facts that are present in plain sight. We cannot let these tales go unanswered.”<doc-sep>John McCain's Senate Desk Draped in Black and Decorated with Flowers After His Death Sen. John McCain‘s desk, draped in black and bearing a vase of white flowers, served as a quiet homage to the late war hero and longtime politician in the Senate chamber in the wake of his death. Get push notifications with news, features and more. McCain’s colleagues — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake — spoke of the late politician on Monday, with his decorated desk in the background, according to ABC News. Among his remarks, Flake said of McCain, “He recognized democracy was hard but living in bondage to tyranny was far harder. Our words are too often cheap and imminently forgettable but John McCain paid our freight with his body and with his soul.” “To our shame, he lived long enough to have to take to the Senate floor to inveigh against the rank tribalism that we have fallen into lately,” he continued, according to ABC News. Senators McCain, Graham, Cassidy and Johnson Discuss Health Care Reform Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, 54, may appoint McCain’s widow to fill his seat until a 2020 special election, a Capitol Hill source told PEOPLE this week. “Rumors are circulating that Cindy could step in, but other names are being floated too,” the source said. “Some are more or less qualified than others.” The source continued: “There are times on the Hill when politics matter. This is one of those times. Everyone is waiting to see what happens.” RELATED VIDEO: Funeral Arrangements Underway for Senator John McCain Cindy tweeted about her husband over the weekend following his death.<doc-sep>
Finally, late Monday afternoon, the White House’s flag was lowered back to half-staff. Trump also issued a proclamation calling for flags to remain lowered until the day McCain is buried. He said in a statement that he had asked Vice President Mike Pence to speak at a Capitol ceremony honoring McCain, and would dispatch his chief of staff, John Kelly; defense secretary, James Mattis; and national-security adviser, John Bolton, to attend McCain’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. (Left unsaid was the fact that the president was conspicuously not invited to the funeral.) Yet even there, Trump couldn’t resist a dig at McCain. His statement began, “Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country.” This kind of thing is so typical for Trump that it’s becoming difficult to remember that such injections of raw partisanship into solemn occasions used to be unthinkable. Consider the statements that Barack Obama made after two prominent Republican senators, Ted Stevens and Howard Baker, died while he was in office; neither mentioned political disagreements. Now consider that those men were each of a different party than Obama—unlike McCain and Trump, who nominally shared a GOP affiliation. The impulse to foreground division is typical of Trump. So is the chaotic path that led to Monday’s long-awaited statement. The discarded White House comment, the icy tweet, the yo-yoing of the flag—these all suggest an administration that is proceeding without a clear vision, and that is caught in a tug-of-war between the president’s bad attitude and his advisers’ better judgment. And, of course, the impulse to snub McCain, even at the moment of his death and in the face of presidential tradition, speaks to Trump’s vast pettiness; this is the rare occasion when nearly all of the political world is united in mourning. The lionization of McCain is a little much for some observers, especially on the left. Trump would not be wrong to believe that the praise for McCain is, at least in part, targeted at him, meant both to draw a contrast with the president and to pour some salt into the wounds left by McCain torpedoing the Obamacare repeal. Trump craves elite approval, and so elites weeping and gnashing their teeth is designed, and succeeds, as a way to enrage him. This is especially true for the press, which loved McCain (who was always ready with a good quote) and has a fractious relationship with Trump. Reporters who otherwise consider themselves objective, non-opinionated journalists have been willing to speak in gushingly reverent terms about McCain. Yet it appears the unremitting criticism from the press Monday on the flag issue finally forced the White House to react. From trade deals to military deployments, the president has a consistent pattern: Talk a big game, then back down.