true dungeons, fire and sword. and he held fast to his faith in america. through six decades of service. we gather here today to honor an american patriot, served a cause greater than himself, and we gather here remembering a man who knew how he wanted to be remembered. and so let me say to all those gathered and his beloved family, on behalf of a grateful nation, we will ever remember that john mccain served his country and john mccain served his country honorably. may god bless the memory of john mccain, may god comfort his family and friends.
speaking now is a bishop of her church. former president bill clinton is in attendance, as is shaariana grande. dozens of pink cadillacs were lined up outside the church in a nod to franklin s hit freeway of love. i remember in the same way that remembering john mccain makes you sad on one hand but makes you so happy for all the celebration, i remember the day aretha franklin passed, it was before we did our show at 11:00 a.m. it was one of the best days you and i have had together on tv. and i felt a little guilty about saying it then. i don t feel guilty anymore. thank you, aretha franklin. you gave us an opportunity for an hour to remember a remarkable life and not talk about politics. not just remember, learn a lot more about her. she liked to burn. she didn t just cook. she could burn. and as we learned from her
mccain s life s work serves as a role model for other elected officials. in republican circles right now, as they look to other members of the party other elected officials, do you see any name, any person as someone who might step up and try to carry on as john mccain did as leader in the party? well, i m keeping my eye on nebraska senator ben sasse. ben sasse has really stepped up in the last week, if you watch the things he s tweeted, the speech he gave on the floor of the senate about john mccain. the pointed challenge to his own political party. i don t want this to be a kiss of death but ben sasse seems to be someone who recognizes the void that john mccain has created. his death has created. i think we ve got kelly o donnell with us. we re going to have kelly in a moment. she s traveled with john mccain a lot and has a lot of personal references to him and the time they spent together.
vladimir, the russian anti-government activist who talked to me the other day about the role that will john mccain played. he said when you hear people say john mccain was anti-russian, he was the opposite. he was a friend of the russian people who felt that the russian government was not fair to the russian people. he wanted that to change and he had an innate sense of social justice. when i asked one of his fellow prisoners from hanoi whether the torture and imprisonment had governed how he thought about the world he said no, people don t take people don t get great just from bad experiences. john mccain was great and continued that greatness throughout his military career and his life. to that point, john mccain wasn t anti-russia nor is kacar murza. he s a defender of western values. many called him the conscience of the senate and it speaks
only been maybe 12b dozen senators or so who were asked whose families were asked to let them lie in state in the rotunda and here comes john mccain on lincoln s catafalque. one thing that went through my mind as i was watching all those senior republicans who spoke were straining to say nice things about john mccain but very aware of that cleave waj donald trump trying to think of things they could say that would not be anti-trump. it reminded me that exactly ten years ago, next week, john mccain was nominate the d for t republican candidate for president. he was running about four points ahead of barack obama. had that happened, history could have gone in a very different direction. remember, it was right about this time about a week from now that we saw the financial crisis. that financial crisis you know, was because of the timing was essentially owned by george bush, and that without a doubt