Trump continues McCain attacks
More Republicans are defending the late John McCain against President Donald Trump’s attacks seven months after the Arizona senator died of brain cancer. But it’s not clear that Trump, firmly in charge of the Republican Party, will let up.
One Republican called the president’s ongoing commentary “deplorable.” Others, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, pointedly used the word “hero” to describe McCain, who was held captive in Vietnam for more than five years. And Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst urged the president to knock it off.
“I do not appreciate his tweets. John McCain was a dear friend of mine,” Ernst, a member of the Republican leadership and a veteran, said at a town hall meeting Thursday, according to video posted by the Des Moines Register. “No, I don’t agree with President Trump. And he does need to stop that.”
Trump has stuck to his suggestion that McCain was not a hero because he was captured. And he can’t seem to forget McCain’s decisive thumbs-down that sank the GOP effort to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Trump on Wednesday responded to the Republican criticism that had been bubbling all week over his new, caustic tweets about McCain. At an official event in Lima, Ohio, he doled out another anti-McCain tirade.
“I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which, as president, I had to approve. I don’t care about this. I didn’t get ‘thank you,’” he told his supporters. “That’s okay. We sent him on the way. But I wasn’t a fan of John McCain.”
There wasn’t much reaction from the crowd to Trump’s references to McCain’s funeral. The president wrapped up the remarks after five minutes with an acknowledgement that his opinion of the late senator isn’t shared by all Republicans. “Some people like him, and I think that’s great.”
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who attended the Trump event, told The Columbus Dispatch afterward: “John McCain was a war hero.”
In fact, McCain’s family made clear that Trump was not welcome during the weeklong, cross-country ceremonies that the senator had planned himself. Instead, McCain invited former Presidents George W. Bush, who defeated McCain during the 2000 GOP nomination fight, and Barack Obama, who defeated him in 2008, to deliver eulogies on the value of pursuing goals greater than oneself. Trump signed off on the military transport of McCain’s body, went golfing and was uncharacteristically quiet on Twitter during the Washington events.
Trump’s publicly nursed grudge against McCain has not appeared to alienate core supporters, some of whom had soured on the senator by the time of his death. Aware of this, GOP lawmakers until now have stayed subdued or silent though Trump sometimes infuriated them with his comments on their late colleague.