McCain is likely to stay on president’s mind
Colleague: Senator would have reveled in attention
PHOENIX – President Donald Trump’s barrage of attacks on the late Sen. John McCain over the past week landed with a thud in many quarters.
But political experts expect Trump to keep heaping abuse on the legacy of his foil, a six-term Arizona Republican, into 2020.
“Sadly, there is no chance that this is going to go away,” said Rachel Bitecofer, a professor of political science who specializes in campaigns and polarization at Christopher Newport University in Virginia.
Arizona is likely to be among a handful of states that could swing the presidential election next year, so McCain’s home state could play an outsize role in the national conversation over the next 18 months.
Trump will probably spend time during the 2020 presidential campaign in Arizona, talking about his long-promised border wall, and he has ignored pleas from Republicans to not discuss his views on McCain, she said.
“He gets into those rallies, and he just can’t help himself,” Bitecofer said.
Trump and McCain publicly battled from 2015 until McCain’s death from brain cancer Aug. 25, 2018. Seven months later, Trump keeps the feud going as special counsel Robert Mueller concludes his inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
In the past week, Trump has lashed out at McCain, blaming him for peddling to the FBI a salacious dossier he said was the work of Democrats, sinking Trump’s health care plans by refusing to help roll back the Affordable Care Act and saying he wasn’t thanked for approving McCain’s funeral services in Washington.
Rick Davis, McCain’s presidential campaign manager in 2008 and member of his inner circle, said McCain probably would have welcomed the attention.
“I’m sure there is a wry smile on John’s face today, knowing he’s as relevant now as he was when he was still with us,” Davis said. “I wouldn’t expect it will be any different in the future. John McCain cast a wide shadow on Earth and now from heaven.”
Josh Scacco, a communication professor at the University of South Florida who specializes in politics, said that years from now, McCain may be most known for having stood as a conservative bulwark against Trump.
Trump sees McCain as a villain who enabled his political enemies, Scacco said. “The reason he’s doing this is because John McCain is a central character in the Russia story,” Scacco said. “For Donald Trump to build a metaphorical wall around himself, he needs to systematically attack the credibility of every actor in that story, whether it is Mueller, whether it is (Deputy Attorney General Rod) Rosenstein or whether it is John McCain delivering the dossier.”
Chris Herring, former chairman of the Maricopa County Republicans, called the latest flare in the TrumpMcCain feud overblown.
“I don’t know that a few days of comments is going to change” McCain’s legacy, he said. “There’s people in Arizona that loved Sen. McCain. There’s people in Arizona that didn’t like Sen. McCain. I don’t think anyone is going to have their views changed by President Donald Trump.”
When it comes to McCain, Herring said, “people’s opinions are entrenched. If anything, I think, over time, the people that didn’t like him, they would soften over time.”
Robert Graham, former chair of the Arizona Republican Party, reminded people that McCain could be combative, too. “Quite honestly, he always leaned in to a fight . ... I just don’t think any rhetoric, any discussion, is going to harm his legacy whatsoever,” Graham said.
Trump’s fixation with McCain may create more discomfort for Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., who faces voters again in 2020. McSally holds the seat McCain held from 1987 to 2018.
She could be caught in the middle when Trump, who is popular among Republicans, attacks McCain, who remains popular with a sizable slice of Arizona voters.
“Politically speaking, there’s no bigger loser than Martha McSally,” Bitecofer said.