and senator mccain said to his daughter, show them how tough you are. that toughness has been a theme, not just of meghan mccain s speech, but john mccain s life. you ve heard it again and again. there was danny boy a haunting moment, and cindy mccain clearly overwhelmed by the end of this service. this was the last big service. tomorrow interrment is closed, and as i turn around in my chair, it is just a sea of people in washington, the highest profile people who have come here to make sure they ve been able to say good-bye in the way they wanted to to senator mccain. as i m talking with you, but this was this was an important day at the washington national cathedral, and an important moment, i think, for a lot of folks.
was present in him, it defies the meanness and cruelty in public life. he hated bullies. you saw that reflected in this service today. so the country is upon a moment of choice about what path, what direction we re going to go on, and one of the themes in the service today was about reconciliation and about love. and we will come upon a moment soon in this country we will need to reconcile with each other to move forward past this dark chapter. thank you so much, steve sh myth and thank you, john weaver. that concludes our coverage of the memorial service for john mccain at the washington national cathedral. leave you with a final thought from the senator himself who gets the last word. coverage begins after this break with joy reed. thank you for joining us.
the division of hate caused by the current dark period. it was indeed a rallying cry, a very strong moment, and i hope it resonates around the country. let me go to steve on this. when you hear the man in the arena speech referred to from the speech by teddy roosevelt, people like me go i wish i was gutsy enough to be in the arena again, and you were in the arena helping john mccain. i wonder what the commentary class should be doing if they re reflecting on what happened here in the last two hours. well, i was struck listening to john, the last words i had with john mccain were i love you, boy, is what he said to me earlier this summer, and love was a big part of his life, and watching meghan mccain, i am thinking about teddy roosevelt jr., the son of the president who was a hero to john mccain.
quote meghan mccain quoted, today is the only day in all the days that lfr be, what will happen in the other days to come can depend on what you do today. the question what are you willing to do today. steve, chris, it begs the question whether or not senators hearing the words would rather follow the spirit of the masses of the party or follow john mccain. a choice put before them by mccain himself and by his family. the question is whether or not they listen to that. duty, honor, country. those words have meaning. that s what his code was. that s what he lived his life by. and the choice before us is a real one. the path that the country is on, the regression of democracy around the world, the assault constantly by this president against objective truth, fact.
america does not boast, because she has no need to. the america of john mccain has no need to be made great again, because america was always great. well, let s go to john weaver who worked so much through the difficult wars, political wars with john mccain. i heard there the anthem of john mccain through his daughter. john? yes, well, we just saw a celebration of family, faith, and freedom, but we also saw a rallying cry for the nation. the last thing john mccain said to me was i love you, johnny, but i also said through that statement from meghan mccain through the country it does not have to be this way. we are greater than this, we are better than this. and i am touched by what president obama said, and i think people in the country need to hear this again. what are you going to do today? what are we going to do in our family, in our communities, in our neighborhoods? what are we going to do to stop