Chuck Todd: McCain’s Funeral Was ‘Unmistakably’ a ‘Rebuke’ of Trump

‘Though President Trump’s name was never mentioned, John McCain made sure to remind us what he thought of Mr. Trump by whom he asked to attend and to speak’

CHUCK TODD: Good Sunday morning, and a happy Labor Day weekend to everyone. What we saw yesterday at the National Cathedral was more than a funeral for John McCain. It was also a longing for what many fear is a lost era of American politics, an era when we could agree that there’s more that unites us than divides us. It was, in other words, unmistakably, a rebuke of Donald Trump’s presidency and style of politics that he’s brought to Washington. Though President Trump’s name was never mentioned, John McCain made sure to remind us what he thought of Mr. Trump by whom he asked to attend and to speak, and by what they said. There was the man he fought bitterly for the republican presidential nomination in 2000.

GEORGE W. BUSH: If we’re ever tempted to forget who we are, to grow weary of our cause, John’s voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder. We are better than this. America is better than this.

CHUCK TODD: Then there was the man who defeated McCain for the presidency in 2008.

BARACK OBAMA: He did understand that some principles transcend politics, that some values transcend party. He considered it part of his duty to uphold those principles and uphold those values.

CHUCK TODD: But more than anything or anyone else, there was McCain’s daughter, Meghan. Fighting through tears, she delivered a one-two punch at the current occupant of the White House. Here was number one.

MEGHAN MCCAIN: We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who live lives of comfort and privilege, while he suffered and served.

CHUCK TODD: And then there was number two.

MEGHAN MCCAIN: 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.

CHUCK TODD: President Trump was not invited. He spent part of the funeral tweeting and left the White House during the funeral, by motorcade, en route to his Virginia club to play golf. When he turned in, Henry Kissinger was speaking, in case you’re wondering. Later in the day, as cable TV played Meghan McCain’s “America was always great” remark over and over, the president tweeted then retweeted simply, “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” in all caps. We have a lot to get to this morning beyond the funeral. And

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