White House FINALLY flies the flag at half staff to honor John McCain – after American Legion demands ‘hero’ be properly mourned by Trump
- White House flag spent much of the day at full staff but was lowered an hour after a public statement from the American Legion’s commander
- Denie Rohan said McCain was ‘an American hero’ who deserved ‘an appropriate presidential proclamation’ for his ‘legacy of service to our nation’
- President Donald Trump declined to answer reporters questions on the late Senator John McCain at the White House on Monday
- Flags are typically kept at half staff until the honoree is buried
- The flag at the U.S. Capitol remains at half staff and the late Senator John McCain is set to buried on Sunday
- Before he died, the senator banned President Donald Trump from his funeral
- Trump vetoed a White House statement that paid tribute to McCain
- Trump left White House team to send their own personal messages about McCain who passed away Saturday
- POTUS was spotted playing golf Sunday afternoon as social media followers waited for a more meaningful statement from the president
The White House flag was lowered Monday afternoon to half staff to honor John McCain – after public rebuke by the American Legion to Donald Trump for failing to commemorate the passing of ‘an American hero’.
The flag above the residence was lowered an hour after the commander of the veterans’ organization wrote publicly to Trump accusing him of failing to follow ‘long-established protocol following the death of prominent government officials’ by not making a proclamation in his honor and ordering all flags flown at half staff.
The Stars and Strips were flown at full staff until just before 4pm Monday, having been lowered for less than a day and a half after McCain’s death Saturday.
Denise Rohan, the organization’s national commander, wrote the letter calling McCain ‘an American hero’ as Trump refused to offer public tribute to him, despite being asked repeatedly by reporters Monday to comment on his passing.
The president was touting a new trade deal between the United States and Mexico in the Oval Office when he was first asked about the late senator’s legacy. He did not answer any questions.
He repeated the refusal at a brief photo opportunity in the Cabinet room Monday afternoon.
And he faced criticism from the American Legion that the American flag is flying full staff at the White House – one day after it was lowered in tribute to the late Senator John McCain.
Down on president’s orders: The flag above the residence in the White House was lowered Monday after criticism that John McCain was not being honored
President Trump is not answering questions on the late Sen. John McCain
The flag is flying full staff at the White House on Monday – one day after it was lowered in tribute to the late Senator John McCain
The flag was lowed on Sunday
The flag remains at half-staff at the U.S. Capitol building
Critic: John Kasich, the Republican Ohio governor who has been outspoken against Trump, criticized the flag being at full staff
Flags are still flying at half staff at the U.S. Capitol building, where McCain served as a Republican senator from Arizona for over 30 years.
The White House has not responded to DailyMail.com’s inquiry on why the flag is no longer flying at half staff.
John Kasich, the Ohio governor who is a vocal Republican critic of Trump and possible 2020 opponent, called the failure to lower the flag ‘shameful’.
VETS’ GROUP TO TRUMP: LOWER THE FLAG FOR A HERO
Dear President Trump,
The American Legion urges the White House to follow long-established protocol following the death of prominent government officials.
Mr. President, just this year, you released presidential proclamations noting the deaths of Barbara Bush and Billy Graham. Senator John McCain was an American hero and cherished member of The American Legion. As I’m certain you are aware, he served five and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and retired from the U.S. Navy at the rank of Captain. He then served in the U.S. Congress for more than three decades.
Message: Denise Rohan, the Legion’s national commander
On the behalf of The American Legion’s two million wartime veterans, I strongly urge you to make an appropriate presidential proclamation noting Senator McCain’s death and legacy of service to our nation, and that our nation’s flag be half-staffed through his interment.
I look forward to your response.
Denise Rohan
National Commander
The American Legion
Trump notably did not issue a proclamation when McCain died on Saturday, which usually calls for flags to remain at half-staff through the day of interment.
That would be Sunday, when the day the late senator is scheduled to be buried at the Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland, as he requested.
It’s traditional for presidents to issue proclamations upon the deaths of notable American citizens – which was what the American Legion demanded Mondya afternoon.
Rohan wrote that: ‘Senator John McCain was an American hero and cherished member of The American Legion.
‘On the behalf of The American Legion’s two million wartime veterans, I strongly urge you to make an appropriate presidential proclamation noting Senator McCain’s death and legacy of service to our nation, and that our nation’s flag be half-staffed through his interment.’
Trump issued such proclamations for others. The flag flew at half staff for four days in April for former first lady Barbara Bush.
When Sen. Daniel Inouye died in 2012, President Barack Obama offered a proclamation ordering staff flown at half-staff ‘until sunset on the day of his interment.’
But Trump vetoed a White House statement that paid tribute to McCain’s achievements, according to The Washington Post.
His move comes after the late senator banned the president from his funeral, telling his friends before he died that he didn’t want Trump there but he did want Vice President Mike Pence invited.
The New York Times reported in May that McCain was making plans for his burial, speaking to visiting friends and well wishers, and expressing his wishes on how he would be memorialized.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama will give eulogies on Saturday at McCain’s funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.
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Both men share the distinction of keeping McCain from the White House: Bush beat him for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination and Obama defeated him in he 2008 presidential election.
Trump, meanwhile, has avoided a public tribute to the late senator other than a tweet that offered prayers for McCain’s family.
The Post reported Sunday that the president didn’t want to send out a message that called the man who fought in the Vietnam war a ‘hero.’
Trump spent most of Sunday at his golf course in Sterling, Virginia and offered a few tweets on how well the economy was doing and touting his high approval rating among Republicans.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Chief of Staff John Kelly and other staff had drafted a statement on McCain before he passed, sources told the Post, but the final version was never approved.
Former Trump legal team spokesperson Mark Corallo, acknowledged that Trump’s reaction was ‘atrocious.’
President Donald Trump (pictured August 23, 2018) vetoed a statement from the White House that paid tribute to late Senator John McCain’s achievements, according to a report
John McCain (pictured December 2017) passed away after a battle with brain cancer this weekend and Trump, 72, left White House officials to post their own personal tributes
He told the publication ‘at a time like this, you would expect more of an American president when you’re talking about the passing of a true American hero’.
McCain passed away after a battle with brain cancer this weekend and Trump, 72, left White House officials to post their own personal tributes.
It comes after POTUS was spotted playing golf Sunday afternoon as social media followers waited for a more meaningful statement from the president, whose daughter Ivanka Trump, had expressed condolences.
Trump had seemingly spent the whole day pointed ignoring either the death of McCain or the mass shooting in Florida.
By Sunday evening he was posting about his approval rate, despite followers earlier expressing their disgust for him ignoring the weekend’s two major events.
Trump continued to offend people by bragging about himself on Twitter Sunday evening
The president tweeted his condolences to the grieving McCain family on Saturday evening, but failed to acknowledge the impact the senator has had on American political life, and his record as one of the nation’s most celebrated war heroes
‘Over 90% approval rating for your all time favorite (I hope) President within the Republican Party and 52% overall,’ he wrote. ‘This despite all of the made up stories by the Fake News Media trying endlessly to make me look as bad and evil as possible. Look at the real villains please!’
Many notable names in politics, including Obama and Britain’s Prime Minister Teresa May, had publicly honored the senator on a personal level.
A group of both supporters and protesters gathered outside the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, as the president arrived, holding Make America Great Again signs as well as others that say ‘FAKE PRESIDENT’ and ‘RESIGN NOW’.
Trump and McCain’s bad blood stems back to June 2015 when Trump announced he was running for president and called Mexican immigrants ‘rapists’ and drug runners during a speech.
McCain distanced himself from the future-president saying in an interview that he disagreed with Trump’s comment. Trump fired back by calling McCain ‘incompetent’ during a July 2015 rally at the Phoenix Convention Center.
When Trump visited Iowa in July 2015, as part of the Republican presidential primary campaign, he told the Family Leadership Summit that McCain was not a war hero because he ‘was captured.’
‘He’s not a war hero,’ said Trump. ‘He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.’
McCain, a former Navy pilot, spent roughly five-and-half years of the Vietnam War in a notorious North Vietnamese prison known as the ‘Hanoi Hilton,’ where he was repeatedly tortured. He spent two of those years in solitary confinement.
Flags are typically lowered to half staff until the honoree is buried
President Trump and John McCain’s feuding goes back to the campaign
John McCain emerged as one of Trump’s sharpest critics
The two men also feuded during the campaign, when McCain criticized Trump’s comments on a Gold Star Family that spoke during the Democratic National Convention
Khizr Muazzam Khan, a Pakistani American, spoke about the death of his son in Iraq. He was accompanied by his wife Ghazala, who stood next to him while he spoke.
Khan was critical of Trump, who later defended his work for veterans and then remarked on Ghazala’s presence on stage, implying a connection between her silence and gender roles in Islam: ‘If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably – maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.’
Officials from both parties criticized his remarks but the harshest came from McCain who issued a statement calling the incident his ‘most severe disagreement’ with Trump, saying ‘While our party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us.’
The two men sniped back-and-forth at each during Trump’s time in the White House with McCain emerging as one of the president’s sharpest critics.
In July, McCain lashed out at the president after Trump said during a meeting in Helsinki with Russian president Vladimir Putin that he accepted Russia’s claim that that they did not meddle in the U.S. presidential election.
McCain said of Trump’s comments: ‘No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant’.
This past year, when the president has spoken of the senator, it’s often in reference to his thumb’s down gesture that accompanied his dramatic return to the Senate on July 27, 2017 after being diagnosed with brain cancer, to vote on a hastily assembled GOP bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
He walked on to the Senate floor to a standing ovation from lawmakers and gave a dramatic thumbs down to signal his ‘no’ vote on the legislation, killing Republican plans to remove the Affordable Care Act.
Additionally, a little over a week ago, Trump failed to recognize McCain during a signing of the John S McCain National Defense Authorization Act, which lawmakers implemented to honor McCain’s leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee and his years of service in the Senate.
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