The late Senator John McCain requested that former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush deliver eulogies at his funeral.
McCain died Saturday at the age of 81 after succumbing to an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was surrounded by his family.
According to CBS News, the late senator specifically asked that Obama, his Democratic opponent in the 2008 presidential election, say a few words at his upcoming funeral at the National Cathedral.
Obama issued a statement on Saturday following McCain’ death.
“John McCain and I were members of different generations, came from completely different backgrounds, and competed at the highest level of politics,” he wrote. “But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher – the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed.”
He continued: “We saw our political battles, even, as a privilege, something noble, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those high ideals at home, and to advance them around the world. We saw this country as a place where anything is possible – and citizenship as our patriotic obligation to ensure it forever remains that way.”
Bush went up against McCain for the Republication presidential nomination in the 2000 presidential election. In a statement, the former president called McCain “a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order.”
According to the Hill, President Donald Trump has not been asked to attend the funeral.
McCain will lie in state at the Arizona State Capitol before traveling to DC where his body will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.
