Trump snub hands big boost to Biden
CINDY McCAIN has endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president in a stunning rebuke of President Donald Trump by the widow of the Republican party’s 2008 nominee.
Mr Trump has had a fraught relationship with members of John McCain’s family since he disparaged the Arizona senator during his 2016 campaign.
In a tweet, Mrs McCain said: “My husband John lived by a code: country first. We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost. There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is @JoeBiden.”
Mrs McCain’s backing could help Mr Biden appeal to Republicans disaffected with their president and give former vice president Biden a boost in Arizona, a crucial swing state that Mr McCain represented in Congress for 35 years.
He has remained a revered figure since his 2018 death from complications of a brain tumour, particularly with the independent voters who the Democrats are courting. Mr Biden told donors that Mrs McCain’s endorsement came “because Trump talks about how my son and John and others who are heroes, who served their country. You know, he said they’re ‘losers, suckers.”’
Mr Biden was referring to comments Mr Trump reportedly made mocking the American war dead.
Mr Trump has denied making the remarks, first reported through anonymous sources by The Atlantic magazine, although many of the comments were later confirmed by The Associated Press.
Mrs McCain had not initially been expected to offer an explicit endorsement of Mr Biden, but she had already gone in to bat for his presidential run. She lent her voice to a video that aired during the Democratic National Convention and was focused on Mr Biden’s friendship with her late husband.
Mr McCain was assigned to be a military aide for Mr Biden, then a senator, during an overseas trip, and their families formed an enduring friendship.
They later shared a grim bond over glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer that killed Mr Biden’s son Beau three years before Mr McCain succumbed to the same disease.
Mr McCain said in 2016 that he could not support Mr Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, citing Mr Trump’s demeaning comments about women.
“It’s not pleasant for me to renounce the nominee of my party,” Mr McCain said during a debate as he sought his sixth term in the Senate.
“But he won the nomination fair and square.”
A Navy pilot, John McCain was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. He was captured, beaten and held prisoner for more than five years, refusing to be released ahead of other American servicemen.