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US-POLITICS-MCCAIN-TRUMP
Trump nixed statement praising McCain: report
WASHINGTON, Aug 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Donald Trump rejected a statement
prepared by his aides that praised John McCain, according to the Washington
Post, underscoring the US president’s enduring scorn for the late senator and
war hero.
While tributes have poured in highlighting the Arizona Republican’s
lifetime of service, Trump issued a single, terse tweet on Saturday that sent
his “deepest sympathies and respect” to the bereaved family, without any
words for McCain himself.
The absence of a formal communique from the White House has raised
eyebrows and was all the more conspicuous after Vice President Mike Pence
along with most of the cabinet, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and all the
living former presidents had issued their own statements over the weekend.
Citing unnamed current and former White House aides, the Post said
Sanders, Chief of Staff John Kelly and other senior staff had advocated for a
statement that called McCain a “hero.”
The statement was prepared and given to Trump for his approval, but
according to the paper the president told aides he preferred to tweet
instead, and it was ultimately not released.
McCain was one of Trump’s sharpest critics, and made clear in one of his
final wishes as he struggled with brain cancer that he did not want the
president to attend his funeral.
The roots of their animosity go back to when Trump announced his candidacy
for the Republican presidential nomination in June 2015, suggesting that many
Mexican immigrants were criminals and “rapists.”
McCain denounced him for using language that “fired up the crazies,” while
Trump said McCain was a “dummy” who had barely managed to graduate from the
US Naval Academy.
He went on to attack McCain’s service in the military, saying of the
onetime prisoner of war: “I like people that weren’t captured.”
As McCain’s health ebbed, he missed few opportunities to lash out at the
president. He was one of just three Republican senators to vote against —
and thus defeat — a Trump-backed effort to repeal Barack Obama’s signature
health care law.
Following McCain’s death, admirers have recalled with fondness his
insistence on fair and civil discourse — in contrast with the frequent
incivility of the US president and his habit of coining unflattering
descriptions of political foes.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1941 hrs