The flag-draped casket of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is carried up the steps of the U.S. Capitol, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Washington. (Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post via AP, Pool) (Associated Press) 
 
 The flag-draped casket of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is carried up the steps of the U.S. Capitol, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018, in Washington. (Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post via AP, Pool) (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans lined up for blocks outside the U.S. Capitol Thursday to say goodbye to John McCain as officials, relatives and friends paid their tributes inside to the Vietnam hero and longtime senator lying in state under the majestic dome. 
 
 Earlier, Vice President Mike Pence, lawmakers and guests paid tribute at an emotional ceremony surrounding McCain's casket in the vast rotunda. 
 
 A light rain fell as McCain's casket was carried into the Capitol by members of America's military services. His family watched from the steps. 
 
 "It is only right that today, near the end of his long journey, John lies here, in this great hall, under the mighty dome, like other American heroes before him," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "We thank God for giving this country John McCain." 
 
 House Speaker Paul Ryan called McCain "one of the bravest souls our nation has produced." 
 
 McCain, a former Navy aviator, really did "talk like a sailor," Ryan said, drawing smiles from the crowd. "But you see, with John, it wasn't feigned disagreement. The man didn't feign anything. He just relished the fight." 
 
 Pence said he didn't always agree with McCain, but said McCain's support for limited government, tax reform and the military "surely left our nation more prosperous and more secure." 
 
 McCain "served his country honorably," Pence said, adding that President Donald Trump "respected his service to the country." 
 
 Trump, who has mocked McCain for being captured during the Vietnam War, was asked to stay away from the Capitol service, people close to the White House and the McCain family said. 
 
 The ceremony was the first of two days of services in Washington honoring the Arizona senator, who served in Congress for 35 years. 
 
 On Saturday, McCain's procession will pause by the Vietnam Memorial and head for Washington National Cathedral for a formal funeral service. At McCain's request, two former presidents — Democrat Barack Obama and Republican George W. Bush — will speak. 
 
 McCain's funeral puts him back in the spotlight a few miles from Trump's doorstep, in the city where the senator, who died last Saturday days short of his 82nd birthday, worked and collected friends and enemies — some in both camps at different times. The procession was highlighting what McCain found important, some of which contrast with Trump's style and priorities. 
 
 Other officials represented the administration in Trump's hard-to-miss absence. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were among those in attendance, along with members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 
 
 Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman and actor Warren Beatty were among those pausing at McCain's casket. 
 
 McCain chose a Russian dissident as a pallbearer, though Trump has professed repeatedly his affinity and admiration for Russian President, Vladimir Putin — praise that came amid special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. 
 
 The procession's pause at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where McCain's widow, Cindy, is expected to lay a wreath, will highlight McCain's military service and his more than five years as a prisoner of war. 
 
 Trump obtained deferments during the Vietnam War for his college education and then for bone spurs in his heels. Trump on Friday was expected to leave Washington in early afternoon, to head to North Carolina for an event on retirement security about the same time the public will start filing past McCain's casket. 
 
 The McCain farewell began Wednesday and Thursday in Arizona, where he and Cindy McCain raised their family. Former Vice President Joe Biden and others provided a preview of the tributes to come. 
 
 None of the speakers at the North Phoenix Baptist Church on Thursday uttered Trump's name. But Biden, who is considering challenging Trump in 2020, made what some saw as a veiled reference to the president. He talked about McCain's character and how he parted company with those who "lacked the basic values of decency and respect, knowing this project is bigger than yourself." 
 
 Biden said McCain "could not stand the abuse of power wherever he saw it, in whatever form, in whatever country." 
 
 Biden advised McCain's friends and family to remember snapshots of him, such as a glance or a touch. "Or when you saw the pure joy the moment he was about to take the stage on the Senate floor and start a fight. God, he loved it." 
 
 At the end of the nearly 90-minute ceremony, McCain's casket was wheeled out of the church to "My Way," in tribute to a politician known for following his own path. 
 
 Trump and his wife, Melania, danced to the same song at the new president's inauguration in 2017. 
 
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 Associated Press writers Juliet Linderman and Lisa Mascaro in Washington, and Anita Snow, Jacques Billeaud and Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed to this report. 
 
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 Follow Kellman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman ||||| Vice President Pence spoke at the Capitol on Friday, where the late Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainOvernight Defense: McCain honored in Capitol ceremony | Mattis extends border deployment | Trump to embark on four-country trip after midterms Congress gives McCain the highest honor Poll: More Dems approve of McCain than Republicans after his death MORE (R-Ariz.) is lying in state. 
 
 “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, in uniform and in public office,” said Pence, who was representing President Trump Donald John TrumpCalifornia lawmakers pass stiffest net neutrality law in US Trump criticizes ABC/WaPo poll that found support for impeachment Trump hails unions, touts trade moves in Labor Day message MORE, who was not in attendance. 
 
 “As President Trump said yesterday, we respect his service to the country,” he added. 
 
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 Before his death, McCain requested Trump not attend his funeral. The two had a combative relationship, with Trump often publicly criticizing McCain and McCain frequently opposing Trump's policies. 
 
 Pence praised McCain’s service during the Vietnam War, during which he was captured and tortured after refusing early release. 
 
 “Americans marveled at the iron will of John McCain. But captivity did not diminish John’s sense of calling, or his commitment to mission,” he said. 
 
 After serving in the Navy, McCain represented Arizona in Congress, first in the House, from 1983 to 1987, and later in the Senate, beginning in 1987. 
 
 “In every generation, there are those who put country first, who prize service ahead of self, who summon idealism from a cynical age,” Pence added. 
 
 McCain died Saturday after being diagnosed last year with an aggressive form of brain cancer. He is survived by his mother, wife and seven children. He was 81 years old. ||||| The moves were emblematic of President Donald Trump’s strained relationship with the late Sen. John McCain, a former GOP standard-bearer who identified as a Republican maverick long before the president arrived on the scene. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump grabs a piece of McCain's spotlight The White House returned flags to half-staff after Trump was criticized for perceived snubs of the late senator. 
 
 President Donald Trump on Monday grabbed a piece of the spotlight back from the late Sen. John McCain, creating a familiar will-he-or-won’t-he narrative that ended with the White House formally ordering flags lowered to half-staff in remembrance. 
 
 An all-day outcry over the White House decision to raise the flags was finally resolved with a statement attributed to the president himself expressing “respect” for McCain’s service and announcing that he’d signed a proclamation ordering flags lowered until McCain is interred later this week. 
 
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 The back and forth mirrored Trump’s actions over the weekend. He maintained steadfast silence on Friday, as Republicans and Democrats alike rushed to celebrate the longtime Arizona Republican senator after an announcement from his office that he was ending cancer treatment. The president remained quiet, finally tweeting a condolence Saturday after McCain’s death was announced. 
 
 The moves were emblematic of Trump’s strained relationship with McCain, a former GOP standard-bearer who identified as a Republican maverick long before Trump arrived on the scene with his own unique brand of iconoclastic politics. 
 
 “Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country and, in his honor, have signed a proclamation to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff until the day of his interment,” Trump said in a statement released by the White House. 
 
 McCain, a celebrated war hero and two-time presidential candidate, died late Saturday afternoon in his home state of Arizona after a battle with brain cancer. 
 
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 In a posthumous statement, McCain took a jab at the president, implicitly criticizing Trump’s tendency to sow division and reward personal loyalty. 
 
 “We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe,” McCain said in his statement, which was read aloud at the Arizona state capitol by McCain’s longtime aide Rick Davis. “We weaken it when we hide behind walls rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.” 
 
 Trump had a strained relationship with McCain, suggesting at one point during the 2016 campaign that the senator, who was tortured as a POW during the Vietnam War, was not a war hero because he had been captured, and "I like people who weren’t captured." 
 
 More recently, the president has often recalled, negatively, McCain's deciding thumbs-down vote against a GOP bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. 
 
 Trump said in his statement that he asked Vice President Mike Pence to offer an address at the ceremony honoring McCain at the U.S. Capitol on Friday. Trump's chief of staff, John Kelly, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and national security adviser John Bolton will also represent the Trump administration at the services, the president said. 
 
 In addition, military transportation has been authorized to move McCain's remains from Arizona to Washington, D.C., along with the service of military pallbearers and band support. A horse and caisson transport was authorized for McCain's service at the U.S. Naval Academy. 
 
 Although many flags in Washington, including at the Capitol and around the Washington Monument, remained at half-staff in McCain's honor on Monday, the White House flag was not among them. 
 
 WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 30: Early morning sunlight hits the U.S. flag flying over the White House October 30, 2017 in Washington, DC. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his ex-business partner Rick Gates turned themselves in to federal authorities Monday in relation to the special counsel's investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images 
 
 Joe Davis, director of communications for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said he heard the news at 7 a.m. that the flag had been returned to full staff. He contacted the White House at 8 a.m. 
 
 “We’re very, very happy that the flags have been lowered in honor of John McCain and will continue to be half-staff through his interment on Sunday,” Davis told POLITICO. 
 
 As of 4:20 p.m., however, flags were still flying at full staff over the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 
 
 The White House was also lambasted for its decision to not immediately issue a proclamation following McCain's death Saturday. 
 
 The American Legion, a U.S. war veterans organization, prior to the proclamation had urged the Trump administration to "follow long-established protocol following the death of prominent government officials." 
 
 "Mr. President, just this year, you released presidential proclamations noting the deaths of Barbara Bush and Billy Graham. Senator John McCain was an American hero and cherished member of The American Legion," Denise Rohan, national commander of the American Legion, said in a statement. "On the behalf of The American Legion's two million wartime veterans, I strongly urge you to make an appropriate presidential proclamation noting Sen. McCain's death and legacy of service to our nation, and that our nation's flag be half-staffed through his internment." 
 
 The president shared his condolences for McCain's family in a Saturday evening tweet that did not mention McCain's legacy of military service or leadership in the Senate. His brief statement stood in stark contrast to the tributes to McCain that poured from nearly every corner of the U.S. political world and beyond, filling the front pages of newspapers across the country on Sunday. The New York Stock Exchange observed a moment of silence at 9:20 a.m. Monday in honor of McCain. 
 
 Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to the president, on Monday also went a step further than her father while sharing her condolences to the late senator's family, calling McCain a "true hero." 
 
 "I want to extend my deepest sympathies to the family of Sen. John McCain, an American patriot who served our country with distinction for more than six decades," she said during her opening remarks at a meeting of the Organization of American States in Washington. "The nation is united in its grief, and the world mourns the loss of a true hero and a great statesman." 
 
 Presidential proclamations for the death of a prominent U.S. official typically call for the flag to be lowered until the date of interment. McCain's funeral is planned for Saturday. 
 
 One White House aide said that the flag fiasco may have been the result of ignorance and bureaucratic inertia. 
 
 Absent the issuance of a presidential proclamation, U.S. flag code dictates that the flag be lowered for a member of Congress “on the day of death and the following day” but no longer — a provision this person said senior presidential aides were unaware of. 
 
 As a result, the flag atop the White House was raised at midnight Monday following McCain’s death Saturday evening. 
 
 As the White House was inundated with criticism, aides scrambled to put together a proclamation that the president, who was welcoming Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and working to hash out a NAFTA fix with the Mexican government, didn’t get around to signing until late afternoon. 
 
 Trump has issued proclamations for others, including when the flag was flown at half-staff for four days after the death of former first lady Barbara Bush in April, and for eight days upon the death of Sen. John Glenn. 
 
 During the tenure of President Barack Obama, the White House marked the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia by ordering U.S. flags lowered to half-staff for seven days. 
 
 McCain's two opponents on the national campaign trail, former Presidents George W. Bush and Obama, will deliver eulogies at a memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington on Saturday. McCain's family had asked that Trump stay away from the funeral. 
 
 Former White House legislative director Marc Short, in an appearance on CNN on Monday, said Trump was doing the right thing by remaining relatively quiet in the wake of McCain's death. 
 
 "If the president put out a flowery statement about John McCain's life, the media would criticize it and say its not consistent with the other things he said in the past, and become a story about the president," Short said. "The best thing the president can be doing right now is allow the family to celebrate his life." 
 
 Eliana Johnson and Lorraine Woellert contributed to this report.
– Much of Washington, DC, came to a halt on Friday to honor the late John McCain, whose casket is now lying in state in the US Capitol. Among those to speak was Vice President Mike Pence, who stood in for President Trump. “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, in uniform and in public office,” said Pence. “As President Trump said yesterday, we respect his service to the country." Before McCain died, the former Arizona senator asked that Trump not attend his funeral, notes the Hill. "It is only right that today, near the end of his long journey, John lies here, in this great hall, under the mighty dome, like other American heroes before him," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, per the AP. House Speaker Paul Ryan called McCain "one of the bravest souls our nation has produced," even if he did "talk like a sailor." On Saturday, McCain's casket will be taken to Washington National Cathedral for a formal funeral, and it will pause at the Vietnam Memorial along the way. McCain is just the 31st American to lie in state in the Capitol. (Trump defended his White House's handling of McCain's death.)