Former US vice president Joe Biden wiped away tears as he led tributes to his “brother” John McCain during an emotional memorial service in the senator’s home state of Arizona.
Some 3,500 mourners packed into North Phoenix Baptist Church in Phoenix on Thursday to remember the presidential candidate and former prisoner of war who died of brain cancer on Saturday.
Mr Biden, who despite being a Democrat was firm friends with the Republican senator, said: “I always thought of John as a brother. We had had a hell of a lot of family fights.”
He recalled "the sheer joy that crossed his face when he knew he was about to take the stage of the senate floor and start a fight".
Memorial for John McCain
In what some saw as a reference to President Donald Trump, he talked about Mr McCain's opposition to those who "lacked the basic values of decency and respect, knowing this project is bigger than yourself".
He said Mr McCain "could not stand the abuse of power wherever he saw it, in whatever form, in whatever country".
Mr Biden also referred to his own son's death from cancer, saying of the disease: "It's brutal, it's relentless, it's unforgiving."
Earlier a motorcade bearing Mr McCain's body made its way from the state Capitol past people waving American flags and campaign-style McCain signs.
Family members watched in silence as uniformed military members removed the flag-draped coffin from a black hearse and carried it into the church.
During the service Mr McCain's longtime chief of staff Grant Woods, a former Arizona attorney general, drew laughs with a eulogy in which he talked about the senator's "terribly bad driving" and his sense of humour.
The church's senior pastor, Noe Garcia, pronounced McCain "a true American hero".
Sinatra's My Way paid tribute to a politician who became known for following his own path based on his personal principles.
The church service brought to a close two days of mourning for the six-term senator in Arizona. An estimated 15,000 people earlier filed past Mr McCain's casket to pay their final respects.
A motorcade then took his body to the airport ahead of his burial at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Sunday.
