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A star-studded cast including Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg will serve as pallbearers at John McCain's memorial service in DC

Ashley Collman   

A star-studded cast including Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg will serve as pallbearers at John McCain's memorial service in DC

joe biden john mccain

William Thomas Cain/Getty

Former Vice President Joe Biden will be among the 15 pallbearers at John McCain's Washington, DC memorial service on Saturday.

  • A famous group of 14 men and one woman will serve as pallbearers for Sen. John McCain's memorial in Washington, DC on Saturday.
  • The six-term senator and war hero will have multiple ceremonies in Arizona and Washington this week.
  • McCain selected bipartisan senators, statesmen, and former presidents to honor his memory.
  • President Donald Trump is not invited.

The pallbearers for Sen. John McCain's memorial service in Washington, DC on Saturday will be full of famous faces.

Among the 14 men and one woman who will carry the late Arizona senator's casket at the Washington National Cathedral ceremony include an A-list actor, a former vice president, and a billionaire. Highlighting his unyielding tough stance on Russia, an outspoken Putin critic will also be a pallbearer.

Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama will be among the few eulogizing McCain, but current President Donald Trump is not invited.

McCain notably asked his two presidential election opponents to speak at his funeral, and chose bipartisan pallbearers to carry his casket and honor his six terms in the US Senate and 22 years in the US Navy.

john mccain ss

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Former President George W. Bush and then-presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain walk toward the Oval Office on March 5, 2008.

Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Lindsey Graham and Joseph Lieberman, son Jimmy McCain, daughter Sidney McCain, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, and daughter Meghan McCain will also speak at the DC ceremony. Full details are available on this website, and a livestream will be available here starting at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday.

Former Vice President Joe Biden will eulogize McCain in Arizona on Thursday and serve as a pallbearer in DC on Saturday. The two grew close during their many years serving in the Senate together, and Biden's son, Beau, died of the same brain cancer McCain had.

Saturday's high-profile ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral will follow multiple memorials in McCain's adopted home state, Arizona, on Wednesday and Thursday, and lying in state at the US Capitol on Friday.

A separate list of pallbearers and ushers will be honoring McCain at his memorial in Phoenix, as well.

Here's the full list of pallbearers for the DC memorial, with descriptions provided by the event's organizers:

Warren Beatty: Friend. Actor and filmmaker, and political activist. He received 14 Academy Award nominations for his work as an actor, director and screenwriter.

Former Vice President Joseph Biden: Friend. Former Vice President of the United States, six-term United States Senator from Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Michael Bloomberg: Friend. Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bloomberg L.P. Served three terms as Mayor of the City of New York. Recognized as one of the nation's leading philanthropists.

Secretary William Cohen: Friend. Founding partner of the Cohen Group. Formerly, the United States Secretary of Defense, three-term Senator from the State of Maine, and three term United States Representative from the Second District of Maine.

Stephen Dart: Friend. Businessman.

Michael Bloomberg

Tim P. Whitby/Getty

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Richard Davis: Friend. Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Pegasus Capital Advisors, LP. Formerly, national campaign manager for Senator McCain presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2008, Special Assistant to President Reagan.

Carla Eudy: Friend, President, the Eudy Company. Longtime fundraiser.

Sen. Russ Feingold: Friend. Visiting Professor at Marquette University Law School. Formerly, three-term United States Senator from Wisconsin and US Special Envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Sen. Phil Gramm: Friend. Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Former Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank, three-term United States Senator from Texas, and three-term United States Representative from the Sixth District of Texas.

Sen. Gary Hart: Friend. Author and attorney. Professor at the University of Colorado at Denver. Formerly, US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, Co-chairman of the US Commission on National Security for the 21st Century, and two-term United States Senator from Colorado.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Friend, Vice Chairman of Open Russia, and Chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom.

Gov. Tom Ridge: Friend. Formerly United States Secretary for Homeland Security, Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and seven-term United States Representative from the 21st District of Pennsylvania. Veteran of the Vietnam War.

Mark Salter: Friend. Author, Formerly, Chief of Staff to Senator McCain.

Fred Smith: Friend. Founder, Chairman and President of FedEx. Formerly, an officer in the United States Marine Corps. Veteran of the Vietnam War.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: Friend. Serving his second term as United States Senator from Rhode Island. Formerly, Attorney General for the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations; US Attorney for the District of Rhode Island.

Remembering the life and legacy of John McCain:

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