Arizona Republican Senator John McCain died at 4:28 p.m. on August 25, 2018 at the age of 81. McCain suffered from a type of brain cancer called glioblastoma (GBM), which doctors diagnosed him with a year prior to his passing in July of 2017. Despite radiation and chemotherapy, the stage-four brain cancer persisted. According to the National Cancer Institute, most people diagnosed with GBM live less than two years, so McCain started to plan his funeral services well in advance of his passing.
The North Phoenix Baptist Church hosted a memorial for John McCain on Aug. 30. According to USA Today, Trump was not invited to McCain’s memorial services. McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain, attended the memorial service, as well as McCain’s 106-year-old mother, Roberta McCain.
Many Twitter users took an interest in Meghan’s McCain’s nonverbal communication during vice president Mike Pence’s speech, calling her expression a “side-eye.”
Kaore Bonell tweeted, “I feel like Meghan McCain is trying to set Pence on fire with her mind” (@Kaore).
Director of Booking for MSNBC Jesse Rodriguez tweeted, “@MeghanMcCain’s glare was an appropriate reaction to Pence’s hypocrisy” (@JesseRodriguez).
Despite being in the same political party, it is public knowledge that Trump and McCain were not on amicable terms. Trump once said, “[McCain is] not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”
When Mike Pence came to the McCain’s memorial service and spoke on Trump’s behalf, he stated, “The president asked me to be here, on behalf of a grateful nation to pay a debt of honor and respect to a man who served our country throughout his life. As President Trump said yesterday, we respect his service to the country.”
It was in response to this particular statement that Twitter users analyzed the facial expression communicated by Meghan McCain.
Twitter erupted when a photo emerged of Meghan McCain standing over her father’s casket in the Arizona Capitol with a photoshopped gun pointed at her chest. The caption underneath the photograph read, “America this one’s for you.” The doctored photograph of 33-year-old Meghan McCain was not initially removed from Twitter even after 100 other social media users reported the post for inappropriate content.
McCain’s husband Ben Domenech now accuses Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey of neglecting the company’s promise to strip Twitter of overly threatening content. Domenech accused Twitter’s CEO and the administrators of being slow to react to the glorification of violence. Dorsey has yet to respond to these comments, but the original post is no longer present on Twitter.
On Friday Aug. 31 respects were paid to the Arizona Senator in Rotunda, Capitol. Former presidents George Bush and Barack Obama delivered public remarks at his funeral on Saturday, September 1 in the Washington National Cathedral. On Sunday, the late senator, congressman and former Navy aviator was laid to rest. According to USA Today, John McCain is the 31st person to have the honor of lying in state at the Capitol over the course of 166 years. McCain’s final resting place is located the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Services held during that time remained private.
Domenica Castro is a third-year student majoring in communication studies with a minor in Spanish. ✉ DC874612@wcupa.edu.