Meghan McCain received a standing ovation Thursday and got emotional while accepting a human rights award for her father, the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.
“You’ve all gathered here to give my father the Magnitsky Human Rights Award and it is an absolute honor here to accept it on his [McCain’s] behalf,” the co-host of “The View” shared during a ceremony in London, in a video shared by People magazine that can be viewed here. (RELATED: Joy Behar: Female Trump Voters Don’t Know The Difference Between A Predator And A Protector)
Meghan McCain attends the 2015 Trevor Project NextGen Fall Fete on November 13, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images)
“I began here by noting all the accolades and admiration my father has received since his passing, especially in Washington, D.C., she added. “I hope it is clear by now that this award this evening would have meant so much to him, as likely, maybe even a little bit more than others.”
McCain continued as she began to get choked up while talking about her father’s passing, “My only sorrow is that he is not here to receive it himself. Every day without him is a day diminished by his absence and the diagnosis of his final illness.”
“I used to count down the days I had left with him,” the ABC talk show host explained. “But now I count down the days until I can see him again.”
“I trust that I will,” she added. “And when I do, he will be clothed in glory, with every tear wiped away. And with him will be the people that he loved and served, the oppressed of the earth. The simple people who never lost faith in God and freedom despite the darkest dungeons, despite the cruelest tyrant.”
McCain went on, “With him will be all whom he tried to free, with him will be all whose sacrifice he honored. And with him will be all whose memory he kept alive.”
She also received a standing ovation as McCain accepted the award on her father’s behalf for Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights Law.
Standing ovation as @MeghanMcCain receives the award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights Law on behalf of her father, Senator John McCain, from @VKaraMurza at #MagnitskyAwards pic.twitter.com/lFB3PTkf61
— Sophie Baggott (@sophieb30) November 15, 2018
On Wednesday, “The View” host explained her absence on the show for the remainder of the week over the award, named after Sergei Magnitsky, who exposed money laundering and corruption in Putin’s regime.
She also criticized President Donald Trump and his administration for failing to “fight against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s global expansion and murderous regime.”
“While the Trump’s and their administration continue to be too ignorant or too unscrupulous to fight against Putin’s global expansion and murderous regime -I promise on behalf of my father to spend the rest of my life doing all that I can to help fight and speak out against it,” McCain tweeted.
Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain, touches the casket during a memorial service at the Arizona Capitol on August 29, 2018, in Phoenix, Arizona. Sen. McCain, a decorated war hero, died August 25 at the age of 81 after a long battle with Glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. (Photo by Jae C. Hong – Pool/Getty Images)
As previously reported, Daniel Vajdich, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and others have shared their beliefs that Trump’s been “much tougher on Russia” than past presidents.
“When you actually look at the substance of what this administration has done, not the rhetoric but the substance, this administration has been much tougher on Russia than any in the post-Cold War era,” Vajdich shared.
“Under the current administration, “some of the toughest sanctions in years” have been brought against Russia’s elite, according to CNBC. The president also approved the sale of weapons to Ukraine, something former President Barack Obama declined to do. And Trump has openly targeted Russia’s allies and strategic operations by ordering missiles to be fired at Syrian military sites, CNBC reported.