The lukewarm reaction of the government of the president, Donald Trump, to the death of the republican senator John McCain continued generating polemic after the White House amaneciera today with the flags to full mast after little more than day and means of duel.
Although the bad relationship between Trump and McCain was vox populi, social networks reacted on Monday with a mixture of stupefaction and outrage at the fact that the flag of the presidential residence returned to wave normally, after having been lowered after the death of the senator last Saturday.
This decision by the White House annoyed even associations of veterans who throughout the day had urged the president to show “proper” respect to a Vietnam veteran who was also a prisoner of war for more than five years.
“I urge you to make the proper presidential proclamation recognizing the death and legacy in service to our country of Senator McCain and the flags fly at half-mast until his burial,” claimed the national commander of the veterans association The American Legion, which It has more than two million members.
Finally, by mid-afternoon, the White House lowered its flag and left it at half mast again.
“Despite our political differences, I respect the service to our country provided by Senator John McCain and, in his honor, I have signed the proclamation that the flag of the United States flies at half mast until the day of his burial,” he said. President Trump in a statement explaining this last decision.
As reported by journalists who regularly cover the White House, the traditional in the case of the death of someone as relevant as McCain, who came to run as a candidate for the country’s presidency in 2008, is that the flags wave at half mast until his burial takes place.
In the case of the Republican senator, his funeral will take place next Sunday, September 2, at the naval base in Annapolis (Maryland), after the funeral on Saturday at the Washington Cathedral.
Last weekend, The Washington Post reported, citing as a source “current and former employees of the White House,” that Trump had refused to issue an official statement calling the deceased senator “hero”. cause of brain cancer, at 81 years old.
It should be noted that one of the most notorious clashes between both party mates took place during the 2016 presidential campaign, when the now president said he did not consider McCain a hero, since he likes “people who do not let themselves be captured “
Trump’s only official reaction to McCain’s passing was on Twitter, where he wrote: “My deepest compassion and respect for the family of Senator John McCain, our hearts and prayers are with you!”
