On Saturday morning, friends, family, and colleagues gathered at the National Cathedral in D.C. for the funeral of Sen. John McCain, who died from brain cancer complications a week ago. The service was stacked with eulogies that moved audiences and internet spectators alike, from former President Barack Obama, who spoke on the senator’s push for honesty in democracy, to McCain’s daughter Meghan, who delivered a heart-stirring speech while taking jabs at President Donald Trump. Even former President George W. Bush highlighted how McCain hated abuse of power and pushed back at authority.
One person who was not invited, though, was the current president, whose power and ideologies McCain had indeed pushed back on. Trump was also known to disparage the multi-decorated veteran, calling him a “dummy” and saying he was “not a war hero.” “I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said of McCain in 2015.
So it makes sense that Trump wasn’t invited. What doesn’t make sense, though, is why the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, decided to attend.
My God! How dare Ivanka and Jared show up there! This family has no shame. Has no dignity. McCain did not want Trump there —and you have to know that he did want his illegitimate proxies there either. The hypocrisy knows no bounds! #McCainMemorial
— @PattyM is @ShakerPM on Threads (@pattym) September 1, 2018
Why are ivanka and jared at #McCainMemorial ? They are part of the problem. She is a complicit and dumb he is evil and trying to f-up the Middle East. They cover for a xenophobic amoral hell hound.
— Faith Zaid (@faithzp1) September 1, 2018
Steve Schmidt upon seeing Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner arrive at John McCain’s memorial service: “Jared and Ivanka are on the side of a movement that stands for everything that John McCain was against, and opposed, and fought against for his entire life.” #McCainMemorial #MSNBC pic.twitter.com/RUHCFTjlZr
— モノリシック (@monolithic87) September 1, 2018
It seems that the couple showed up at the funeral and “mingled,” as USA Today put it, with the political luminaries in the room before taking a seat for the service.
But hey, maybe Ivanka was just doing the polite thing (even though it seems pretty obvious the late senator probably wouldn’t have wanted them there, so maybe that’s not so polite) and just wanted to show goodwill where her father had not? Then again, paying respects probably doesn’t include texting during former Sen. Joe Lieberman’s speech.
https://twitter.com/BettyBowers/status/1035930245386457093
People were curious: What could be so pressing for Ivanka to take to her phone during a moment she’d surely be scrutinized over anyway? Some assumed she was texting her dad or liking his tweets. Or maybe she was still stuck in 2014 and just playing a quick game of Candy Crush.
https://twitter.com/Robb_Wexler/status/1035946273164197890
Be nice, she’s at a crucial Candy Crush level.
— V4Virginia, ELON IS A DOODYHEAD (@vforvirginia) September 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/favolaschia/status/1035931815360380928
An observer had another theory about why the pair came at all.
They are there because they feel entitled.
— Holly Figueroa O’Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) September 1, 2018
Period.
Meanwhile, the president at least knew to stay away. He spent his Saturday like he best prefers, on his golf course in Virginia.
