Trump says he didn't get a 'thank you' for approving John McCain's funeral arrangements
President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued his streak of attacking the late Senator John McCain and complained to a crowd in Lima, Ohio that he was not thanked for approving the state funeral arrangements of the senator.
Trump, while addressing the crowd on Ohio, said: "I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve. I don’t care about this, I didn’t get ‘thank you,’ but that’s OK. We sent him on the way. But I wasn’t a fan of John McCain.” The members of the crowd included military members too who remained largely quiet when the president criticized the war hero.
Reports state that Trump did not attend McCain's funeral, and the request reportedly came from the senator's family and not the senator himself.
Despite Trump's claim, the Washington Post reported the Washington National Cathedral likely approved the senator's state funeral arrangements, and that the congressional authorization is required for lying in state at the Capitol. The Post added that Trump had to approve only the military transportation.
Trump signed a proclamation ordering that the flags at the White House be lowered to half-staff to honor McCain after his death. However, traditionally the flags remain lowered until a person's interment but Trump ordered to raise the flags to full staff just a day after. The flags were returned to half-staff after he faced heavy criticism for the move.
Trump, during his Wednesday speech, talked about McCain's defiance in opposing his and other Republicans' attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and strip health care coverage from millions of Americans. He also mentioned the infamous Christopher Steele dossier compiled on Trump and Russia and slammed the late senator for turning a copy of it over to the FBI.
"That’s not the nicest thing to do,” Trump added.
After Trump's attacks on McCain over the weekend on Twitter, the late senator's daughter Meghan McCain slammed the president for tweeting criticism of her father over the weekend, saying the president had a "pathetic life."
McCain, while talking on ABC's 'The View', said: "He spends his weekend obsessing over great men because he knows it, and I know it, and all of you know it, he will never be a great man. My father was his kryptonite in life. He was his kryptonite in death."
"So it was indeed (just proven in court papers) 'last in his class' (Annapolis) John McCain that sent the Fake Dossier to the FBI and Media hoping to have it printed BEFORE the Election. He & the Dems, working together, failed (as usual). Even the Fake News refused this garbage!", the president wrote on Sunday. Reports state that McCain was fifth from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy.
