Friends say John McCain 'believed in America,’ as late senator lays in state in Arizona
Some of Arizona’s top politicians have paid their respects to the late Senator John McCain in a ceremony at the state Capitol, days after the Navy veteran died of an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Mr McCain laid in state in Phoenix on Wednesday, as family, friends, and grateful constituents paused to herald the 30-year senator's service to his country.
"John McCain believed in America. He believed in its people, its values and its institutions,” said former Arizona Senator Jon Kyl in the private ceremony.
“He said he came to realisation as a [prisoner of war] in Vietnam,” Mr Kyl added, referring to the five years Mr McCain spent in a Hanoi military prison. “'I fell in love with my country,' he said, 'when I was a prisoner in someone else's’.”
A black hearse carried the senator’s body to the Capitol that afternoon, where armed military honour guards waited to meet him. Mr McCain’s daughter, Meghan, cried as the casket arrived. His wife, Cindy, later approached the casket to lay her cheek on it.
Meanwhile, more than 100 people endured the sweltering heat outside to attend the public viewing after the ceremony. One couple told the AP they had driven approximately five hours from San Diego in order to pay their respects, saying Mr McCain "epitomizes what ... our forefathers were hoping our country would be”.
The late senator received similar praise from Arizona Governor Doug Doucey, who said at the ceremony that Mr McCain “will always have our back”.
"His talk of country first wasn't simply a slogan on a yard sign," the governor said. "It was what John McCain had done and demonstrated over and over and over again in the Navy, through Vietnam, and all the way to his favourite battles on the floor of the United States Senate."
