Sen. John McCain's funeral on Saturday was more than a remembrance of his life and contributions. It turned into a political “call to arms,” according to a CNN analyst.
But not everyone agrees that political comments should be made from a funeral podium.
During CNN’s afternoon broadcast, host Ana Cabrera asked CNN analyst Ron Brownstein for his thoughts about comments made at McCain's funeral.
"I was struck by the tone of today’s funeral,” Brownstein said. “It was less a eulogy than a call to arms.”
Virtually every speaker made an affirmative case for a new era of politics, he said.
“I think it was a bipartisan rejection for this kind of politics that is inherently grounded in division,” Brownstein said.
“I mean, every couple days, President Trump has to find a new target on Twitter or in his public comments – something new to kind of stir up. He believes that the key to consolidating his side is to essentially have them constantly at war against other Americans. And I think you saw today this kind of yearning among a portion of the leadership, certainly a majority of the leadership class and a portion of the country, over the past week, for something different," he continued.
Very few non-presidents in American history have had the kind of week remembrance that John McCain had, Brownstein added.
Many speakers at the funeral reportedly addressed the need to fix the current political climate in Washington, D.C. And perhaps not surprisingly, they blamed it on President Donald Trump, yet stopped short of naming him.
Former President Barack Obama said during his eulogy: “So much of our politics can seem small and mean and petty. Trafficking in bombast and insult, phony controversies and manufactured outrage.”
Likewise, former President George W. Bush said McCain “detested the abuse of power and could not abide bigots and swaggering despots.”
“The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,” daughter Meghan McCain said, referring to Trump’s “Make American Great Again” slogan.
Not everyone thought the comments were appropriate.
"This new trend of using funerals and eulogies to deliver political messages is really quite disgusting," Candace Owens, communications director for Turning Point USA, wrote on Twitter. "Sympathy from death as means to sway public opinion is next level corrupt. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves."
Trump was reportedly barred from attending the funeral.
