Page 391 - Captivity News Today

Our special coverage will start at the top of the hour with dana bash and wolf blitzer. and the funeral will start at 10:00 a.m. eastern right here. now, the family is expected to leave the u.s. capitol rotunda and travel to the vietnam veterans memorial for a wreath-laying, and then head to washington national cathedral for the service. cnns correspondent tom foreman is outside of the vietnam memorial this morning. and what can you tell us about what will happen there today? >> reporter: victor...

Gifts. i met john for the first time in april, 1973 at a white house reception for prisoners returned from captivity in vietnam. he had been much on my mind during the negotiations to end the vietnam war. probably, also, because his father, then commander-in-chief of the pacific command, when briefing the president answered references to his son by saying only, i pray for him. in the mccain family, national

Self-efacing and moving. thank you for saving my honor. he did not tell me then or ever that he had had an opportunity to be freed years earlier, but had refused, a decision for which he had to endure additional periods of isolation and hardship. nor did he ever speak of his captivity again during the near half century of close friends p friendship. johns focus was on creating a better future.

Dont you know if john mccain were in your shoes here today he would be using some salty word he used in the navy while my mother jabbed him in embarrassment. he would keep grinning. she was the only one who could do that. on their first date when he still did not know what sort of woman she was, he recited a robert service poem to her called the cremation of sam mcgee about an alaskan prospector who welcomes his creation as the only way to get warm in the icy north. there are strange things done...

Unimaginable torture in captivity, and not simply because he fought in the political arena for so many decades. he is in fact being remembered in this way because his life stands in the starkest of contrasts with the incumbent president of the united states. it would be less than intellectually honest, less than john mccain, not to at least flick at that reality. >> steve schmidt, i was thinking about the progressives watching this program, watching this funeral service, and thinking why are the...

Really those folks at home have no purchase with it. how can you possibly understand the kind of things that john mccain went through during his five years in captivity? a lot of folks who come to this memorial day after day, his fellow pows, really do understand that and this will be that moment, that silent solitary tribute to that such an important part of john mccains life and remember, that was not his only purchase with these p.o.w.s even after coming to the senate. he cochaired a committe...

John mccain was one of those gifts of destiny. i met john for the first time in april 1973. at a white house reception for prisoners returned from captivity in vietnam. he had been much on my mind during the negotiations to end the vietnam war. partly also because his father, then commander in chief of the pacific command, when briefing the president answered references to his son by saying

Steel. that brings to mind something that hemingway wrote in the book that meghan referred to, his favorite book. today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. but what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today. in captivity, john learned in ways that few of us ever will the meaning of those words. how each moment, each day, each choice is a test. and john mccain passed that test again and again and again.

When we finally met. his greeting, self-effacing and moving. thank you for saving my honor. he did not tell me then or ever that he had had an opportunity to be freed years earlier, but had refused. a decision for which he had to endure additional periods of isolation and hardship. nor did he ever speak of his captivity again. during the near half century of close friendship, johns focus

Display as leaders of both parties from both congressional chambers laid wreaths near his coffin. while president trump has been kept at a distance from these memorials, today vice president pence was in attendance. >> the president asked me to be here. >> reporter: he had a warm relationship with senator mccain and spoke of his resilience as a prisoner. >> then as now, americans marvelled at the iron will of john mccain. but captivity did not diminish johns sense of calling. >> reporter: mccain...