Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday that the McCain family took notice of kind words shared by Ivanka Trump about the late Sen. John McCain.
“Earlier in the week, I met with Ivanka about a trip we’re planning in Africa. Ivanka said some very nice things about Sen. McCain after his passing. It was not unnoticed by the family,” Graham said on CNN. “I’m hoping that Cindy, who has done terrific work for human trafficking of women and all things related to that issue, can work with Ivanka and others because that’s her life’s work.”
Graham also denied having a hand in Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner being invited to McCain’s funeral.
“No. Nobody was at the funeral who did not get invited by the family,” Graham said, pushing back on earlier reports he was responsible for the invitation Saturday given McCain himself specifically requested that President Trump not be in attendance.
Cindy McCain, the longtime Republican senator from Arizona’s second wife, respected her husband’s wishes that President Trump be left off the guest list following several insults he leveled at the former naval aviator’s time as a Vietnam prisoner of war and his dramatic vote against Republican efforts in the Senate for a “skinny” repeal of Obamacare. Many onlookers, however, were surprised that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, White House advisers and members of the president’s family, were present Saturday at the Washington National Cathedral.
Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut who joined Graham in the CNN interview, added that neither Ivanka Trump nor Jared Kushner complained about veiled references to the president during the funeral. Lieberman, one of McCain’s oldest friends, offered one of the eulogies for the 2008 GOP presidential nominee.
“They felt that the whole service was a great tribute to him and elevating,” Lieberman said. “Hopefully everybody is elevated by what happened there in the cathedral yesterday and the whole week, and will take some of this forward with us and make the country better.”
McCain will be buried Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
