New digs at McCain ‘deplorable’
Casting aside a rare censure from Republican lawmakers, US President Donald Trump aimed new blasts of invective at the late John McCain yesterday, even claiming credit for the senator’s moving Washington, DC funeral, and complaining that he was never properly thanked for it.
By the time the president began his anti-McCain tirade in Ohio, several leading Republicans had signalled a new willingness to defy him by defending McCain, a Vietnam War veteran, as a hero seven months after he died of brain cancer.
One GOP senator called Trump’s remarks ‘‘deplorable’’.
Trump then launched a lengthy rant in which he claimed, without citing evidence, that McCain had pushed for a war and failed America’s veterans.
‘‘I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted,’’ Trump told reporters at a campaign-style rally in Lima, Ohio. ‘‘I didn’t get (a) thank you, but that’s OK.’’ In fact, McCain’s family made it clear that Trump was not welcome during the week-long, cross-country ceremonies the senator had planned himself.
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 does not seem to have alienated his 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 silent, though Trump has sometimes infuriated them with his comments about their late colleague.
McCain’s allies suggested it was time for that to change.
‘‘I hope [Trump’s] indecency to John’s memory and to the McCain family will convince more office holders that they can’t ignore the damage Trump is doing to politics and to the country’s well-being or remain silent despite their concerns,’’ said Mark Salter, McCain’s biographer.
Trump has said for years that he doesn’t think McCain is a hero because the senator was captured in Vietnam. McCain was tortured and held prisoner for more than five years.
The president has never served in the military, and obtained a series of deferments to avoid going to Vietnam.
One McCain Senate vote in particular is the thumbs-down Trump can’t seem to forget. The Arizona senator in 2017 sank the GOP effort to repeal Obama’s healthcare law. Trump was furious, and it showed even in the days after McCain’s death last August.
The administration lowered the American flag over the White House to half-staff when McCain died on a Saturday, but then raised it by Monday. After a public outcry, the flags were again lowered.
This week, Trump unloaded a new series of anti-McCain tweets in which he said he never had been ‘‘a fan’’.
His relentless new targeting of the deceased senator seemed to cross a boundary for several Republicans.
Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia said not only the McCain family but the nation ‘‘deserves better’’ than Trump’s disparagement.
‘‘I don’t care if he’s president of the United States, owns all the real estate in New York, or is building the greatest immigration system in the world,’’ Isakson told The Bulwark, a conservative news and opinion website. Later, Isakson called Trump’s remarks ‘‘deplorable’’.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee, tweeted praise for McCain.
‘‘I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God,’’ Romney wrote. –AP