John McCain had some simple advice for his daughter when it came to giving his eulogy: Give 'em hell.
Meghan McCain recalled the unusual request on the History Channel's It Was Said podcast. Meghan spoke with her father about his eulogy between the time he was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017 and his death in 2018. She was surprised to get the advice. Eulogies are usually somber and emotional, but Meghan's dad knew she could bring more than that.
Meghan gave the eulogy at the Washington National Cathedral on September 1, 2018. She made sure to get in some jabs at President Donald Trump. He was not invited to attend the service by the McCain family. He's had an ongoing history of saying the worst about Senator McCain.
The details of the president's scathing remarks about the senator recently came to light again. A recent report by The Atlantic revealed a number of unflattering comments about the military. It also shed light on the president's baffling behavior around Senator McCain's funeral. Although the White House has denied the authenticity of these comments, it's resulted in another painful moment for the McCains.
Meghan McCain's 2018 eulogy for her father, Senator John McCain, got many people talking. Meghan was both heartfelt and passionate in her assertions throughout the speech. Apparently, that was just what the late senator wanted.
The speech began as a heartfelt dedication to a man who dedicated his life to serving his country. It felt poignant coming from his adoring daughter. Then, she added a pointed jab.
"He was a great man. We gather to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice, those that live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served."
Later in the speech, Meghan went on to the America that her dad sacrificed so much for, that he loved and taught her to love. Again, there was a dig at the president.
"The America of John McCain is the America of the boys who rushed the colors in every war across three centuries, knowing in them is the life of the republic, and particularly those by their daring as Ronald Reagan said, gave up their chance as being husbands and fathers and grandfathers and gave up their chance to be revered old men. The America of John McCain is, yes, the America of Vietnam, fighting the fight, even in the most grim circumstances, even in the most distant, hostile corner of the world, standing for the life and liberty of other peoples in other lands," she proclaimed.
“The America of John McCain is generous and welcoming and bold. She’s resourceful, confident, secure. She meets her responsibilities. She speaks quietly because she’s strong. 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. That fervent faith, that proven devotion, that abiding love, that is what drove my father from the fiery skies above the Red River delta to the brink of the presidency itself.”
During the eulogy, Meghan was honest about the fact that she and her father had spoken about it in between the time he was diagnosed with brain cancer and the time he died.
"When my father got sick, when I asked him what he wanted me to do with this eulogy, he said 'Show them how tough you are,'" She recalled.
"That is what love meant to John McCain."
She elaborated on that conversation between them on History Channel's It Was Said podcast.
"He knew to a degree what I was going to say and what I was going to do, but he told me to give 'em hell," Meghan says in the preview for the episode.
"I thought it was such a weird suggestion and request because you think of eulogies as being sad and stoic and — sort of beautiful and maudlin. And he really wanted fire."
It took some time for Meghan to work through her confusion on that advice, but "in the days after he died and the process of it, I really understood what he meant."
"I was just horrifically in grief and so sad and really just barely functioning on a physical and emotional level right after he died."
She then goes into how the president's politicization of her father's death made that pain all the worse.
Trump reportedly refused to lower flags to honor the late senator. It wasn't until two days after his death that he did so, and allegedly due to increased pressure.
"I was very, very angry," she confessed.
"Because I felt like it was becoming politicized and then there were controversies with President Trump and the White House lowering the flag — and my grief turned to anger."
The pain the president has caused the McCain family came front and center again recently. A bombshell report by The Atlantic alleged the president said a number of disparaging things about the military. It also looked at his behavior around John McCain's death.
"We're not going to support that loser's funeral," Trump reportedly told senior staff members.
When the flags were lowered, he was furious that he'd supposedly been forced into it.
"What the [expletive] are we doing that for? Guy was a [expletive] loser."
The reports weren't too hard to believe for those who recall him slamming McCain's war record in 2015 when he was a presidential candidate.
"He's not a war hero," he said of the senator, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese.
"I like people who weren't captured."
The White House has denied all of this.
Meghan shared her thoughts on those comments after many asked her how she felt.
"I just got through two years without my Dad a few days ago. The loss is still incredibly painful and raw," she tweeted.
"No one is more acutely aware of how vile and disgusting Trump has been to my family, it is still hard to understand — America knows who this man is…"
