‘Real hero’: Crowds brave Arizona heat to honor John McCain

The beginning of the national memorial for Sen.

President Donald Trump has ordered American flags at USA buildings lowered to half-staff for senator John McCain until his burial on Sunday.

Flags were lowered at government buildings across Washington and across the country Saturday evening after McCain died, as is standard practice for a sitting member of Congress.

Mr McCain has been a fervent Trump critic since the NY property mogul announced his presidential bid in 2015.

They debated over whether or not to lower the flag on the White House in McCain’s honor. John McCain’s life as a former prisoner of war and maverick politician enters a second day with a church service and a military salute before his casket departs his adopted state of Arizona for the U.S. Capitol.

In recent months, Graham, who gave an emotional tribute to McCain on the Senate floor on Wednesday, sought to balance a friendship with the Republican senator from Arizona with his stated desire to work with Trump, a hard task given the friction between the two men. The family lived in Hawaii, the Panama Canal Zone – where the senator was born in 1936 – Connecticut, Virginia and many points in between.

Asked whether McCain would have made a better president than McCain’s 2008 rival, Barack Obama, Trump said: “I don’t want to comment on it”. Cindy and the McCain family have lost a loving husband and father.

A final draft of the statement was ready for the president’s approval, per the Post.

No presidential proclamation to maintain the honor was forthcoming.

He also said he had agreed to the McCain family’s request for military transportation of the senator’s remains from Arizona to Washington.

It was lowered again following a statement from the powerful American Legion veterans group.

During the 1970s, Dole – who had met McCain’s father – became one of the millions of Americans who wore a metal bracelet with the name of a serviceman who was captured or missing during the Vietnam War. The Obama White House archives don’t include a proclamation for Lautenberg, though according to his obituary by the Associated Press, the flag did fly at half-staff at the White House for an unspecified amount of time.

Those who were willing to courageous the brutal Arizona heat to say goodbye to McCain were given water bottles from volunteers and were perched under tents as they waited in line, many for over an hour.

Former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl said he has been with McCain all around the world and he had better instincts on when to assert USA power than anyone else he knew. “The flag at the Embassy has been lowered to half-mast in his honour”, the embassy tweeted.

Arizona National Guard members carried the casket into the Arizona State Capitol Museum rotunda, where McCain lay in state.

For members of Congress, the USA flag code requires only that the flag be lowered on the day of the death and the following day.

The White House has not issued a more robust statement since Trump’s tweet.

It was no secret that the president and McCain frequently clashed.

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. John Hickenlooper has joined a growing list of governors who have ordered the U.S. flag in their state be flown at half-staff in memory of U.S. Sen.

“He never forgot the great duty he felt to care for our nation’s heroes, dedicating his spirit and energy to ensuring that no man or woman in uniform was left behind on the battlefield or once they returned home”, she said both of his military career and political career.