Senator John McCain passed this past weekend after battling brain cancer for quite some time. He suffered from an aggressive type of brain cancer called glioblastoma. He died at the age of 81 years old. He is an American hero who served not only as a Senator and Congressman of Arizona, representing the state for about 35 years, but also in the Navy for 2 decades. His funeral plans include being laid to rest in state at the Capitol Rotunda. As for the service, both former Presidents Barack Obama & George W. Bush have been asked to offer eulogies.
In regards the White House addressing McCain's passing, it took a couple days. People were ripping President Trump and the White House for messing with flying the flags at half staff and it took until Monday afternoon for it to be done for an extended period of time until McCain is laid to rest. McCain passed on Saturday afternoon/evening and it wasn't until Monday evening that President Trump addressed his passing.
Many question whether or not he would even address it at all given his public "differences" with the late Senator. It's no secret that McCain himself was not a fan of POTUS Trump and was very open about that and as a result, Trump was not fond of McCain either. The president was under tremendous pressure from veterans, the media, and the public in general to address it and order the flags to be flown at half mast.
Initially the White House lowered the flags on Saturday but then raised them back up by Monday. Why? It seems as though the staff took the initiative then the president had them put them back up. Then Monday he ordered the flags to be officially put at half mast through the week until this weekend, the day of his interment. Clearly there was some confusion...
In addition, on Monday Sarah Huckabee Sanders did do the right thing by putting out an official statement from the White House & President:
Did we really think the White House was just going to ignore this fallen American hero? Doubtful. Sure, POTUS Trump disliked McCain but that doesn't mean he has disrespect for America's veterans and soldiers. Plus General Kelly is Trump's Chief of Staff, it's very unlikely he'd let that fly...it just took some time. A little too long for most people's liking but at least in the end he did the right thing. There was a bit of some flag confusion along the way but in the end it all worked out the way it should be.
-Producer Lightning