mccain funeral ivanka jared

@BettyBowers/Twitter

The internet wants to know what Ivanka and Jared were doing at John McCain’s funeral

The president's daughter was seen texting at the service.

 

Jessica Machado

Tech

Posted on Sep 1, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 7:27 am CDT

On Saturday morning, friends, family, and colleagues gathered at the National Cathedral in D.C. for the funeral of Sen. John McCain, who died from brain cancer complications a week ago. The service was stacked with eulogies that moved audiences and internet spectators alike, from former President Barack Obama, who spoke on the senator’s push for honesty in democracy, to McCain’s daughter Meghan, who delivered a heart-stirring speech while taking jabs at President Donald Trump. Even former President George W. Bush highlighted how McCain hated abuse of power and pushed back at authority.

One person who was not invited, though, was the current president, whose power and ideologies McCain had indeed pushed back on. Trump was also known to disparage the multi-decorated veteran, calling him a “dummy” and saying he was “not a war hero.” “I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said of McCain in 2015.

So it makes sense that Trump wasn’t invited. What doesn’t make sense, though, is why the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, decided to attend.

It seems that the couple showed up at the funeral and “mingled,” as USA Today put it, with the political luminaries in the room before taking a seat for the service.

But hey, maybe Ivanka was just doing the polite thing (even though it seems pretty obvious the late senator probably wouldn’t have wanted them there, so maybe that’s not so polite) and just wanted to show goodwill where her father had not? Then again, paying respects probably doesn’t include texting during former Sen. Joe Lieberman’s speech.

People were curious: What could be so pressing for Ivanka to take to her phone during a moment she’d surely be scrutinized over anyway? Some assumed she was texting her dad or liking his tweets. Or maybe she was still stuck in 2014 and just playing a quick game of Candy Crush.

An observer had another theory about why the pair came at all.

Meanwhile, the president at least knew to stay away. He spent his Saturday like he best prefers, on his golf course in Virginia.

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*First Published: Sep 1, 2018, 1:31 pm CDT