democratic party. the future for our country and the role we play and the president cannot seem to remove himself from that. ruth marcus, thank you both for joining us. as we go to break, take a look at the highlights of the mccain tributes we ve seen in arizona this week. i m a blameocrat and i love john mccain. a little harrowing, a little bit crazy but a lot of fun and the greatest honor of my life. he celebrated differences. he embraced humanity. championed what was true and just and saw people for what they were. even though john is no longer with us, he left us pretty clear
politician, to be a public servant and bipartisanship. that s something that s fundamentally lacking today. and so it s my hope that during this time as we reflect upon the life and legacy of senator mccain, that hopefully in his moments of quietude, if the president is a self-reflecting individual, he can think of things that john mccain can do which is selflessness. this is a teachable moment that i hope the president will reflect on and rise above the occasion because he hasn t so far. donald trump was at a recent funeral of the late reverend billy graham.
he it took nearly 48 hours after the passing to send out a statement and trump insisted he properly honored him. i did everything that they requested and, no, i don t think that i have at all. ruth, it s interesting. i have had conversations with folks who say they are bothered conceptually by the idea that the president of the united states isn t going to be playing the role that you would expect of a president but also given the history with donald trump and john mccain, given the statements he s made, maybe it s better that the president take a back seat. the president didn t have a choice to take a back seat in terms of the funeral because it was made clear by senator mccain and his family that the president was kind of
the states man continues to lie in the capital rotunda as the americans stream through. the crowds are not thinning out at all. this morning mccain s former colleagues paid tribute to him. half a world away wearing our nation s uniform john mccain stood up for every value that this capital building represents, then he brought that same patriotism inside its walls to advocate for our service members, our veterans, and our moral leadership in the world. a patriot who served his country. a man, yes, of the senate, but also a man of the house. a navy man, a family man, a man who made an enormous difference in the lives of countless
courageous figure, all of the things you would expect a president to say of somebody in mccain s stature. the president is the head of state. there is the ceremonial aspect. he s expected to show up and say something about a democrat, republican, something bigger than that. in this it fell to the vice president. the president did not rise to the occasion, which has been the expectation that i think we as a nation have had for every previous president and it s an expectation that i would hope we would maintain for every other president that will come after donald trump. here you have the late senator john mccain, who was a noble man. he wasn t a perfect man in his own words. admitted that many times. he had noble aspirations about what it means to be a