As he watched a memorial service for U.S. Sen. John McCain, Rob Tibbetts remembered how people across the country rallied behind his family for most of the summer as they followed the search for his daughter, Mollie.

He sensed that spirit of unity again as people from across the political spectrum came together for the longtime senator, in an effort that transcended their diverse opinions. 

After his daughter’s body was found and a man authorities say is an undocumented immigrant was charged with murder, some politicians immediately used Mollie’s killing as a rallying cry for tougher immigration laws.

Rob Tibbetts wants people to know his family does not want to be featured in that cause, he wrote in a column he shared exclusively with the Des Moines Register on Friday.

FROM ROB TIBBETTS: Don’t distort Mollie’s death to advance racist views

While national news outlets continue to call him and send fruit baskets and describe Mollie as an “inspiration to the world,” Tibbetts and his family just want to be left alone.

“We want Mollie to die with dignity,” he said.

In an interview with the Des Moines Register about the column, Tibbetts said his family has spent a lot of time in the last 11 days trying to get pundits, journalists and strangers to stop using the 20-year-old college student’s death to advance a cause he said she “vehemently opposed.”

Mollie Tibbetts was found dead Aug. 21, her body hidden in a cornfield in rural Poweshiek County, after a month of relentless attention on her disappearance. Authorities have charged farmhand Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, with first-degree murder, saying he is an undocumented immigrant who confessed to abducting Mollie while she was on a run the evening of July 18, just outside of her hometown of Brooklyn.

RELATED: Complete coverage of Mollie’s disappearance, death

Some of the anti-immigrant views Mollie would have considered profoundly racist have been sent straight to her father’s phone. Tuesday afternoon, a week after Mollie was found, Rob Tibbetts said he felt devastated as he listened to the message from what appeared to be a Brooklyn, Iowa, number. 

It was a pre-recorded message sent from a computerized autodialer, or robocall. In it, a white nationalist called Mollie’s family traitors to their race. Rob Tibbetts thinks he was among the first to receive the message, which claimed if Mollie could be brought back to life, she would say of immigrants, “Kill them all.”

“It was unbelievably painful,” Rob Tibbetts said, recalling how his wife, Kacey Auston-Tibbetts, became physically ill when she heard it. “It was everything that’s dark and wrong in America right now.”

But as Rob Tibbetts watched the discourse unravel around an event that has shattered him, it was “just too much to take.” He’s now pleading with politicians to show some decency. 

“I’m tired of my family being abused,” he said.

‘Please leave us out of your debate’

After he read a guest column in the Register from Donald Trump Jr., the eldest child of President Donald Trump, Rob Tibbetts said he had to respond. 

Trump Jr.’s column criticized Democrats’ response to Mollie Tibbetts’ killing and said the party seemed more concerned with “protecting their radical open-borders agenda than the lives of innocent Americans.” 

In a response published in the Register, Rob Tibbetts said his family was grateful to the politicians who heard his appeal and stopped using his daughter’s death to promote agendas. But others did not, instead choosing to “callously distort and corrupt Mollie’s tragic death,” he said. 

Quoting Trump Jr.’s column, Tibbetts said it’s “heartless” and “despicable.” 

President Trump and other politicians — including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and both of Iowa’s Republican U.S. senators — have referenced the University of Iowa student’s death to promote increased border security measures.

The day Tibbetts was found dead, Trump posted a statement on Twitter saying there were “serious and unpleasant consequences” when people cross the border illegally. The next day, he posted a video calling Tibbetts an incredible young woman before telling viewers, “We need the wall,” referencing a estimated $22 billion barrier the president wants to build between the U.S. and Mexico.

The White House also posted a video on Twitter of family members whose loved ones have been killed by undocumented immigrants. “The Tibbetts family has been permanently separated,” the tweet read. “They are not alone.”

In her initial statement about Tibbetts’ death, Reynolds said, in part: “We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community.” At a roundtable Thursday in Ames, the governor pushed back on charges her comments inflamed immigration issues.

“This is about policy,” Reynolds said.

Rob Tibbetts encouraged a debate on immigration but implored politicians and institutions to stop using Mollie’s name in the conversation. He asked that his family be allowed to grieve in private. 

“Please leave us out of your debate,” Tibbetts wrote in his guest column in the Register. “At long last, show some decency.” 

Tibbetts noted that Vice President Mike Pence’s office has shown his family compassion and never politicized Mollie’s death. Pence, who met with Rob, his sons and Mollie’s boyfriend in August, told a crowd in Des Moines that Mollie’s family was “on the hearts of every American.”

‘My family stands with you’

Since Bahena Rivera was charged, activists in Iowa’s Latino community have seen an uptick in anti-immigrant rhetoric. 

The latest example was found Thursday when drivers on the south side of Des Moines passed large, red words spray-painted on the street: “Deport Illegals.”

The week before, one activist recalled, a middle-aged white man confronted a young Latina walking through Gray’s Lake Park in Iowa’s capital city, asking her, “What are you going to do about Mollie Tibbetts?”  

“This type of stuff has created a chilling effect on our community,” said Joe Enriquez Henry, a vice president for the League of United Latin American Citizens. “We have a lot of people who are very worried, scared about what’s going to happen next.”  

At least two Iowa festivals dedicated to Latino heritage were canceled or postponed in the days after Bahena Rivera’s arrest. An organizer of one event cited the heated racial rhetoric, including social media posts encouraging people to “hunt illegals in Iowa.”

In his guest column for the Register, Tibbetts offered his family’s heartfelt apology to the Hispanic community for being mired after Bahena Rivera was charged. “My family stands with you,” he noted.

Mollie Tibbetts cherished her Latino nephews, her father said of his stepdaughter’s sons. He recalled when Mollie was in California during the summer, she rode a jet ski with one of the young boys squeezed between the two of them. 

In his eulogy at Mollie’s funeral, Rob highlighted how the Hispanic community in central Iowa embraced him as he searched for his daughter, far from the home he shares with his new bride in California.

While in Iowa for nearly six weeks, he ate at a number of Mexican restaurants, where employees were sensitive and kind, not allowing him to pay for his meals.

“The Hispanic community are Iowans,” he said to loud applause from the crowd at the funeral. “They have the same values as Iowans.”

To show their support, religious officials and leaders in the Des Moines metro’s Latino community organized a vigil Thursday to honor Mollie Tibbetts. They denounced violence against women and condemned aggression toward Latinos.

“That death was caused by an individual, not by a community,” Henry of the League of United Latin American Citizens told the crowd on the steps of the Iowa State Capitol. 

Rob Tibbetts’ column echoed that sentiment. He said Bahena Rivera is no more a reflection on the Hispanic community than “white supremacists are of all white people.” He called on the public to celebrate America’s diversity.

The search for Mollie Tibbetts “brought this nation together like no other pursuit” for most of the summer, something that transcended race, gender and geography, her father wrote in the Register. And when you lose your best friend, he said, those differences are meaningless.

“Let’s not lose sight of that miracle,” Rob Tibbetts said of the unity. “Let’s not lose sight of Mollie.”

Follow the Des Moines Register on Facebook and Twitter for updates. 

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Liverpool held off a spirited Leicester City comeback to remain top of the Premier League as Chelsea and Manchester City also maintained their unbeaten starts to the season.

After goals from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino had given Jurgen Klopp’s side a comfortable lead at half-time, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson made a horrendous error to allow Leicester’s Rachid Ghezzal to score a consolation as the Reds won 2-1.

Chelsea ran out 2-0 winners at home to Bournemouth courtesy of substitute Pedro and Eden Hazard, ensuring they remain level on points with Liverpool with only an inferior goal difference keeping them off the top.

In the evening game, Kyle Walker’s 25-yard strike gave champions Manchester City a 2-1 victory over Newcastle after DeAndre Yedlin had levelled following Raheem Sterling’s opener for the champions.

Aleksandar Mitrovic had a mixed afternoon as his Fulham side drew 2-2 at Brighton, scoring the Cottagers’ second before conceding the penalty that led to the hosts’ equaliser.

Andre Schurrle had given Fulham the lead but Glenn Murray scored twice in the second half for the Seagulls.

Elsewhere, Adama Traore scored an injury-time winner for Wolves as they beat West Ham 1-0 – the Hammers are still without a point – while there was a late goal too for Southampton as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg found the back of the net.

Danny Ings had earlier scored for the Saints as they completed a 2-0 victory away to Crystal Palace to secure their first league win of the season.

Huddersfield were also seeking their first victory of the campaign and there were two goals in two minutes as they took on Everton at Goodison Park.

Philip Billing scored the opener for the Terriers but Dominic Calvert-Lewin hit his third goal in two games to ensure a point for the unbeaten Toffees.

In the Championship, Aston Villa’s unbeaten start to the season was ended in spectacular fashion as they were thumped 4-1 at Sheffield United, while Derby County recorded a third successive win against Hull City.

In the Scottish Premiership, Hearts went five points clear at the top with a 4-1 win over St Mirren as Livingston beat Hibernian 2-1 in Gary Holt’s second game in charge.

Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand are speaking their minds about President Donald Trump following Sen. John McCain‘s funeral Saturday.

After the event at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the legendary singers took to Twitter to share their thoughts. 

Midler, 72, complimented several eulogies before making a statement about who Americans “REALLY are.”

“Eulogies for #JohnMcCain, by #GeorgeBush and #BarackObama, so moving. Thank you to both of them for lifting the veil we have been  under these last 18 months and reminding all Americans who we REALLY are,” she tweeted, giving a subtle jab to Trump. 

Streisand, 76, called out the president by name and focused on what he was doing during the funeral.

“Listening to President @BarackObama speaking so eloquently today makes me very sad at what we’re missing. Obama was criticized by Trump for playing too much golf. Where is our current president today? – playing golf as usual!” she wrote.

Both stars have been vocal about their dislike of Trump.

Streisand told USA TODAY in November that she can’t help being vocal when it comes to politics.

“Otherwise, I’d drown in candy and my ice-cream habit,” she joked. 

More: John McCain funeral: Jay Leno, Renee Fleming and more celebrities who attended

More: ‘True American Hero’: Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks and other celebs pay tribute to John McCain

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RICHMOND, Va. – Three times.

That’s the number of instances Willie Lanier was told that his heart stopped, while being transported to the hospital in an ambulance in 1967 after he collapsed on a football field.

All these years later, while debate rages about the practicality of the NFL’s new helmet rule, the Hall of Fame linebacker has decided to reveal publicly for the first time – as he endorses the need for the controversial safety measure — that he nearly died from a head injury.

Weird thing, Lanier wasn’t told of his near-death experience until a decade later when flying back on the team charter from Oakland in 1977 following the final game of his brilliant, 11-year career with the Kansas City Chiefs … which says so much about standards, conflicts and trust.

 “The team doctor comes up to me on the plane and told me he had something to tell me, and had he told me earlier it might have affected my great career,” Lanier told USA TODAY Sports. “So I looked at him whimsically.”

The physician, Albert Miller, is now deceased. Lanier said Miller was the doctor who originally treated him for the head injury suffered during his rookie year that was ultimately diagnosed as an undetected subdural hematoma, which forced him to contemplate retirement.

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Here’s how Lanier, 73, remembers that exchange on the airplane:

“Remember when you were injured your first year?”

“Yes, sir.”

“On the way to the hospital, I lost your pulse three times.”

It was stunning to hear Lanier recall this, sitting in conference room at his downtown office recently.

He has held on to this for decades. Years ago, he sought verification and had his insurance carrier try to dig up the medical records, wanting the information for his family. But the records, he said, didn’t go back farther than 1970.

“It’s not like it was a hamstring,” Lanier said. “The man said, ‘pulse … three times.’

Hesitant to speak about it publicly, Lanier said Saturday as he watched the funeral for Sen. John McCain, that he has been moved by recent events. In addition to the services for McCain, stirring tributes to Aretha Franklin, the late “Queen of Soul,” hit home.

So, with what he termed as the type of “freedom” that McCain exhibited throughout his life, Lanier figures there’s no need to hold back anything as he issues his strongest message yet in championing the cause of the NFL’s helmet rule.

“Players need to know,” he said, “they can put themselves at great risk.”

Surely, players today as was the case in Lanier’s heyday, realize there’s risk whenever they step on the field. Yet the pushback expressed by a multitude of players contending that the NFL’s new rule will change the essence of the sport – “flag football,” is how San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman puts it – and require them to alter tackling techniques with unreasonable expectations.

During the preseason, players were penalized 71 times under the new rule (1.09 a game), with the rate decreasing sharply the past weeks. Most of the infractions (61) were called on defenders.

Lanier’s bottom-line message beyond the health risk, is that skeptical players can indeed take their heads out of the game. After all, that’s exactly what he accomplished in compiling a resume that includes eight all-pro selections, a Super Bowl IV crown, recognition on the NFL’s 75th Anniversary Team and a jersey, No. 63, retired by the Chiefs.

After he collapsed on the field, suffering what was believed to be a concussion, Lanier was back for the next game. It wasn’t until two weeks later, with vertical double vision so severe that he grasped at air thinking he was tackling San Diego quarterback John Hadl in the open field, Lanier told Miller he was determined to get to the bottom of his issues. Granted, this was during an era when little was known about how to diagnose and treat head injuries. He wound up at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where his condition was diagnosed.

“Undetected subdural hematoma is … a brain bleed that can kill you,” Lanier said. “A brain bleed doesn’t necessarily show itself at the time it occurs.”

Lanier believes the injury occurred when he caught a knee in the head during a routine tackle, rather than with a huge, knockout blow. The double vision, which Lanier said was caused by damage to an optic nerve, was the symptom that made the difference.

He decided while at the Mayo Clinic that if he couldn’t play football, “Ninety-percent safe, I wasn’t playing again.”

Lanier didn’t consult with anybody – family, teammates, coaches or doctors – when contemplating retirement during his rookie year.

“It was quiet time between Willie and God,” he said. “‘Are you going to do this and how are you going to do it? Base it on physics and zero emotion.’“

Playing safe meant that the man noted as the first African American in pro football to play the “thinking man’s position” on defense resolved to change his tackling style. As a rookie, Lanier earned the nickname “Contact” from teammate Jerry Mays, because he went head-first, targeting to blow up opponents by hitting them between the numbers.

For the final 10 seasons, Lanier became known as “Honey Bear” because his tackling style aimed for body-on-body contact, rather than leading with the arm, shoulder or head.

“And the odds of me missing are damn-near zero,” he maintained.

Was it a tough adjustment to change his style?

“No,” Lanier said. “I was unconscious for two hours.”

Two years ago, Lanier asked his former teammate, Hall of Fame cornerback Emmitt Thomas, about the day in 1967 when he collapsed in the huddle.

“I said, ‘Emmitt, I want to ask you something since you were in the huddle. You saw me fall. It’s the first time I’ve ever asked you this in 50 years. What did you think when I collapsed?’

“He said, ‘I thought you were dead.’”

Lanier slammed his palm on the table.

“I’m down,” he said. “Not from a play where I couldn’t get up. Because the pressure from the undetected hematoma had built up inside the skull and it was about to shut my system down.”

Never mind that this occurred a half-century ago. You might wonder if players could adapt their styles as Lanier did, in a faster game with bigger and stronger players. He is undeterred in his warning to players about the risks.

“The simplest thing,” he said, “is to take the head out of the game.”   

 

 

 

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest lap in Formula 1 history as he stole pole position from the title contenders at the Italian Grand Prix.

The 38-year-old Finn triumphed in a thrilling fight at Monza with team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, taking pole with the last lap of the session.

Hamilton was fastest after the first runs and improved on his second lap, but Vettel beat him before Raikkonen pipped both.

Raikkonen’s lap of one minute 19.119 seconds meant he averaged 163.793mph. The previous record – 1:19.525 (162.950mph) – was set by Juan Pablo Montoya in a Williams in 2004.

Vettel was not happy, saying “we speak after” as his engineer told him the result. The German declined to elaborate when asked to say what he meant.

In one of the most exciting qualifying sessions for some time, Hamilton fought to overcome what appears to be a slight Ferrari pace advantage and appeared at one stage to have done it.

On the first runs in final qualifying, Hamilton set a 1:19.390, beating Raikkonen by just 0.069secs, with Vettel third just 0.038secs behind the Finn.

Hamilton improved to a 1:19.294 on his final run, but the Ferraris had positioned themselves behind him, Vettel in front of Raikkonen, and the slipstream the second Ferrari driver got may have proved decisive.

Raikkonen, whose pole was his first since Monaco last year, was pleased to set the quickest time on Ferrari’s home track.

He said: “I couldn’t think of being on pole in a better race. I am hoping tomorrow I can end up in the same position.”

That remains to be seen, as Vettel is 17 points adrift in his close title fight with Hamilton.

Vettel said: “Not entirely happy with my last run but Kimi was a bit too fast in the end. It is always like this in Monza, for him it was in the sweet spot. My lap was not very good but for now we have both cars on the front row.”

Hamilton said: “Ferrari did a solid job. We gave it everything we could, it is very close between us but they have had the upper hand this weekend. We will give it everything we can tomorrow.

“It was so intense and that’s how F1 should be.”

Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who has been off the pace all weekend, ended up fourth, 0.362secs behind the Briton. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Haas’ Romain Grosjean, Renault’s Carlos Sainz, Force India’s Esteban Ocon, Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Williams’ Lance Stroll completed the top 10.

It was Stroll’s best qualifying result since this race last year, when he was fourth in the wet. Speculation continues to surround the Canadian’s future following the purchase of the Force India team by a consortium led by his father.

Alonso at centre of row

Fernando Alonso was a surprising 13th in his McLaren, benefiting from engine penalties for Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, which meant they did not compete in second qualifying, and by Force India’s Sergio Perez getting knocked out in Q1.

But Alonso had to report to the stewards to explain an incident when he tangled with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen at the first chicane as they both disputed the same piece of track at the end of the second session.

Over the radio, Alonso had said Magnussen wanted to race, to which Magnussen replied on BBC Sport: “I don’t know what he’s on about. He’s clearly frustrated, trying everything he can, getting his team-mate to give him a tow everywhere. Today he tried to get a tow from me and he got too close. It didn’t work out.”

Alonso responded that Magnussen had made a late decision to start a flying lap while in the middle of the final corner, Parabolica.

Alonso said: “We were all together at the start of the lap trying to find a gap. In the last moment in Parabolica, Kevin decided to start the lap just in front of me and fill the gap between the two cars in front. I don’t know why.

“A late decision that maybe didn’t make too much sense. If he decides that, maybe he thinks it is the right thing for him.”

The stewards decided no further action was required.

As the threat of an all-out Syrian government offensive looms large over Idlib, Qays, a 26-year-old father of two, says he and his young family are running out of options.

“There’s no place for us to go. If an offensive takes place, it will be a bloodbath,” he told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

Qays, a volunteer with the civil defence group known as the White Helmets, is one of the almost three million people crammed in the northwestern province of Idlib, the last remaining rebel-held province in war-ravaged Syria.

For days now, President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have been encircling Idlib, seemingly ready to launch what has been described as the last major battle in a long-running civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, displaced millions and left the country in ruins.

If the assault takes place, Idlib will be “the perfect storm”, UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned this week. A battle, he said, would affect millions of civilians and could see both sides use chemical weapons. 

Similarly, Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN’s refugee crisis, cautioned that an all-out attack would cause renewed displacement while exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation.

‘Nothing to do but wait’ 

After vowing to take back “every inch” of Syria, Assad, backed by his Russian and Iranian allies, has managed in recent years to roll back rebels from territories they had previously gained – from Aleppo, through Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus, to Deraa, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising.

Like Qays – who was displaced with his family from Deraa after Assad’s forces took over the city in July – hundreds of thousands of civilians and rebels from across Syria are now in Idlib, dubbed a “dumping ground” for those evacuated from other battlefields.

“We know there’s nothing for us to do but wait,” says Qays, recalling the grueling journey from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where he stayed for two weeks, before joining scores of families onto buses that transported them to Idlib.

Today, more than half the of the families based in Idlib are from other parts of Syria, many of whom reside in overcrowded camps.

Chemical attack fears

Qays, whose wife is expecting twins next month, says the prospect of a chemical attack is what scares him the most.

“We’re expecting the government to target Idlib with a chemical attack, just like it did in Khan Sheikhoun. We’ve already been receiving threats,” he says.

In April 2017, a chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun, a town in Idlib, killed at least 83 people, a third of them children, and wounded nearly 300 others, according to a UN war crimes investigation.

The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria said in September 2017 that it had gathered an “extensive body of information” to show the Syrian air force was responsible for the sarin gas attack.

But Russian officials have also warned that rebels might stage a chemical attack and then blamed it on Assad’s forces in order to be used as a pretext for an assault by Western countries.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday in Moscow alongside his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned against “established provocateurs who call themselves the White Helmets”.

“This kind of provocation is being staged as to complicate the whole issue of combating the terrorists in Idlib,” said Lavrov. “We have warned our Western partners clearly that they should not engage in this kind of activity.

Families displaced

Although Idlib has been designated a “de-escalation zone” as part of an agreement struck by Russia, Iran and Turkey in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, residents say the area has been targeted by Syrian and Russian air attacks in recent months.

According to Mohammed, a 24-year-old pro-opposition activist in Idlib, the fierce bombardment has forced local families to leave their villages.

“A small number of families have already been displaced from the southeastern suburbs of Idlib, moving towards areas along the Turkish border.”

Such movement is likely to intensify if a full-blown government offensive is launched.

“More families will be moving further north and closer to the Turkish border – that’s the only direction we can potentially go,” adds Mohamed.

Turkey, which is already hosting more than three million Syrian refugees, sealed off its border with Syria last year, allowing only for the passage of humanitarian goods.

Its troops rolled into Idlib last year to implement the “de-escalation zone” as per the Astana diplomatic process, as well as in Afrin and Al Bab following military operations against Kurdish fighters in Syria’s north.

In recent weeks, Turkish-backed opposition groups in Idlib have attempted to form a new coalition, with some 70,000 fighters pledging to fight against forces loyal to Assad. But Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the most dominant rebel force in Idlib which controls about 60 percent of the province, has not joined the coalition.

Like many other Idlib residents, Dhafer, a 31-year-old pharmacist from Maarat al-Numan, said Turkish control over the area is the only way to guarantee the safety of its civilians.

“Our last strand of hope lies in Turkey,” says Dhafer. “It is the only regional power that has stood with us. We hope it will continue to do so in the coming days and weeks.”

Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, told reporters on Friday that Ankara “is trying to prevent an attack” on Idlib, calling such a development “a disaster”.

Turkey has been locked in intense negotiations with Russia over the past few weeks in hopes of preventing a large-scale assault that could prompt a new wave of displacement. On Friday, it officially designated HTS, which is dominated by a rebel faction previously known as al-Nusra Front before cutting its ties to al-Qaeda, a terrorist group.

“Thousands of us are calling on Turkey to take control of the region, just as it has done in Afrin and Jarablus,” says Mohammed.

But with the outcome of the Turkish-Russian negotiations remaining unclear, various rebel groups inside Idlib are already starting to prepare for an escalation, according to sources.

“Opposition groups are digging up tunnels and massing along possible front lines in preparation for an offensive,” says Anas, a pro-opposition activist and resident of Idlib.

“These tunnels are being dug up towards the southern and eastern suburbs of Idlib and will be used to push back a military offensive,” he adds.

“They [the opposition] won’t be the ones to start, but they will be ready to retaliate.”

Cindy McCain tweeted a photo of the extended McCain family shortly after the Washington, D.C., memorial service for Sen. John McCain ended Saturday.

In the photo, Cindy McCain was standing with her hand on her heart next to Bridget, Sidney and Meghan McCain. Jack and Jimmy McCain held a military salute. 

“Today we lost our hero, our friend, our mentor, our father, our grandfather and husband,” Cindy McCain wrote in the post. “Together we mourn and together we go on.” 

The message was posted about an hour after the memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral ended. More than 3,000 family, friends, congressional colleagues and staff, and U.S. and international leaders filled the cathedral for the invitation-only event. 

Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush euologized the late senator during the 2 1/2-hour service. 

John McCain died Aug. 25. In the days after, Cindy and other family members have seen an outpouring of support across the country during the four days of memorial events in both Arizona and Washington, D.C.

On Sunday, McCain will return to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, for a private funeral and burial at the cemetery there.

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The Canadian journalist who published President Donald Trump’s disparaging, off-the-record remarks about trade talks with Canada flatly rejected the president’s charge that the Bloomberg journalists who had conducted the Oval Office interview had leaked the material.

“I’d said I wasn’t going to say anything about my source for the quotes Trump made off the record to Bloomberg,” Daniel Dale, the Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, wrote on Twitter Saturday. “However, I don’t want to be party to the president’s smearing of excellent, ethical journalists. So I can say this: none of the Bloomberg interviewers was my source.”

Dale, who was not personally present for the Star interview on Thursday, published off-the-record comments from the meeting in which Trump told the Bloomberg News journalists that he was not compromising with Canada on ongoing trade talks.

“Here’s the problem, Trump said. “If I say no — the answer’s no. If I say no, then you’re going to put that and it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal … I can’t kill these people,” Trump said, referring to the Canadian government.

In another off-the-record remark, Trump said that any deal with Canada would be “totally on our terms.” He suggested he was scaring the Canadians into submission by repeatedly threatening to impose tariffs on imports of Canadian-made cars.

“Off the record, Canada’s working their ass off,” he continued. “And every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala,” Trump said. The Impala is produced at the General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ontario.

The comments, coming only hours before Trump’s deadline for Canada to sign a a tentative U.S.-Mexico trade agreement, caused a media firestorm. Canada, in the end, did not sign a deal, although talks continue.

Eric Miller, president of a U.S.-Canada consulting firm based in Washington, said the disclosure “will reverberate in the background of the NAFTA (trade) talks for the remainder of the negotiations,” the Star reported.

Not long after the quotes appeared in the Star, Trump began pointing fingers.

First, while acknowledging on Twitter Friday afternoon that he had made the comments, Trump said they were off the record “and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED.”

“Oh well, just more dishonest reporting,” he added. “I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand!”

Eight hours later, he returned to the topic with a direct accusation that the Bloomberg journalists had broken the ground rules of the interview.

“Still can’t believe that Bloomberg violated a firm OFF THE RECORD statement,” he tweeted. “Will they put out an apology?”

Trump also raised the issue in a speech in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday evening, saying, “These are very dishonorable people. But I said, in the end it’s OK, because at least Canada knows how I feel. So it’s fine. It’s fine. It’s true.”

The Bloomberg News journalists included editor-in-chief John Micklethwait and reporters Jennifer Jacobs and Margaret Talev. 

Also present were White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and presidential assistant Dan Scavino, Vox reports. 

Trump was also in the room.

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