Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that Sen. John McCain was an “American patriot” who will never be forgotten, and that Americans will “ever remember” that he served the U.S. honorably for 60 years.
“The president asked me to be here on behalf of a grateful nation, to pay a debt of honor and respect to a man who served our country throughout his life,” Pence said in his opening remarks.
“On behalf of a grateful nation, we will ever remember that John McCain served his country, and that John McCain served his country honorably,” Pence said.
[More: Washington says farewell to Sen. John McCain]
Pence’s remarks came after those by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., McConnell, who heaped praise on his Senate colleague of over 30 years.
“Generations of Americans will continue to marvel at the man who lies before us,” McConnell said, calling McCain a “generational leader.”
“I’ve long joked that his guards at the Hanoi Hilton needed group therapy when John was finished with them. Well, let’s just say there were times when some of his Senate colleagues were tempted to form a support group of our own,” McConnell said.
“I will miss a dear friend whose smile reminded us that service is a privilege and whose scars reminded us of the great cost that brave souls pay for our freedom,” McConnell said.
“Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places,'” Ryan said. “No one was stronger at the broken places than John McCain.”
“The brokenness was his ballast,” Ryan added. “He never lost the joy that time can dull or the edge that political life so often sands away.”
McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer laid a wreath by the casket of McCain on behalf of the Senate, while Ryan did so with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for the House and Pence for the White House.
