McCain Gets Apology From Hatch Over Trump At Funeral Comment

CORNVILLE, AZ – John McCain can decide who he does – and doesn't – want at his funeral. That's the word from his Senate colleague, Orrin Hatch, who sent a letter of apology to McCain on Tuesday.

Hatch had called McCain's desire to not have President Trump at his funeral "ridiculous," adding that Trump is the president and a "good man."

He said that McCain should change his mind.

On Tuesday, McCain's daughter, Meghan, who had spent a long weekend with her father, returned to her job co-hosting The View and had some choice words for Hatch. (Get Phoenix Patch's daily newsletter and real-time news alerts. Or, find your local Patch here and subscribe.)

"I would like everybody to take a collective breath and chill out on my dad for a second – especially Orrin Hatch," she said. "We're all doing good and hanging in.

"It's a process, as anyone knows if you know anyone who has cancer, so please be kind and respectful of the fact that there's a family here."

Soon after, Hatch sent McCain a letter of apology, telling reporters that he shouldn't have said anything and that he had spoken out of turn.

McCain has been at his ranch in Cornville, outside of Sedona, since mid-December, struggling against an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Over the weekend, it was reported that McCain – a frequent target of Trump — had said he didn't want Trump to attend his funeral. The bad blood between the two dates back to the 2016 presidential campaign, when Trump said at an event in Iowa that he didn't think McCain, held captive in North Vietnam for more than five years, was a war hero "because he was captured."

"I like people who weren't captured," he said at the time.

In McCain's new book, "The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations," which comes out May 22, the ailing senator does not have kind words for Trump.

"He has declined to distinguish the actions of our government from the crimes of despotic ones," McCain writes. "The appearance of toughness, or a reality show facsimile of toughness, seems to matter more than any of our values."

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WATCH MEGHAN MCCAIN TALK ABOUT HER FATHER

Photo of McCain via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images.