Before lying in state tomorrow, the late Senator John McCain (R-AZ) had his final service in Arizona. Despite McCain planning and arranging his entire funeral before his death, there was a very scary moment yesterday. Watch (below) as the National Guard pallbearers slipped during their long walk with the senator’s casket. What a scary moment!
I have been a pallbearer many times both my uncles were undertakers and watching the color guard fight with John McCain's casket brought back some scary moments of dropping a casket
— John Barber (@jonrob718) August 29, 2018
Somebody was not holding their weight and cause an overload. Glad The late senator wasn’t dropped.
— I hold my own (@biggill37) August 29, 2018
Thankfully, the color guard recovered… that was a scary moment.
— Eric A Cheavers (@PHL_NewsPhotog) August 29, 2018
Watch the moment here. Wow, that was close! Thankfully, they recovered quickly:
McCain’s daughter Meghan and wife Cindy were seen weeping while standing in front of the flag-draped casket at the Arizona Capitol. The ceremony was opened by former Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, who praised McCain’s toughness on foreign policy. A benediction was offered from Arizona Senator Jeff Flake.
Today, a memorial service will take place at North Phoenix Baptist Church, and the public is invited to line the route along Interstate 17.
For McCain’s service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., McCain personally selected 14 pallbearers, which include Warren Beatty, former Vice President Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, William Cohen, Stephen Dart, Richard Davis, Carla Eudy, Phil Gramm, Gary Hart, Tom Ridge, Mark Salter, Fred Smith, and Vladimir Kara-Murza. Kara-Murza was reportedly selected as a posthumous insult for President Donald J. Trump, who is not invited:
Even in death, John McCain has one final burn planned for two of his biggest foes — Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump — at a moment when much of the world will be watching.
The Republican senator from Arizona, who planned his own funeral, chose Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza as one of the dignitaries to carry his coffin to the front of the Washington National Cathedral at Saturday’s memorial service.
The funeral cortege, or procession, is often one of the most-watched parts of any televised memorial service, and McCain appears to have chosen his pallbearers with that in mind. He picked some, such as former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden and former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), to represent his time as an Arizona congressman, senator and presidential contender. Others, such as former Defense Secretary William Cohen, honor his service as a naval aviator and prisoner of war, and some are friends, such as the actor Warren Beatty.
The choice of Kara-Murza, who twice suffered organ failure from poisoning, appears aimed at sending a last message to Putin and Trump, who McCain had criticized for sounding too cozy with the Russian leader, amid an investigation into whether the U.S. president’s allies cooperated with Moscow’s efforts to intervene in the 2016 election.
Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers’ newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share on social media, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you.
