Klobuchar Tries Using McCain Quote To Attack Trump, Meghan McCain Puts a Hard Stop to It
It is no secret that President Donald Trump and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain were engaged in a heated and vitriolic feud prior to the senator’s death in 2018.
A Democratic 2020 candidate, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, used that well-known feud as a cudgel to attack President Trump.
But the late senator’s outspoken anti-Trump daughter, Meghan McCain, sought to put an abrupt stop to it — despite the abject hatred for Trump that she holds.
The Hill reported that Klobuchar, speaking at a campaign event in Iowa, shared with the supporters that she had been seated between McCain and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.
She said the late senator had listed off names of dictators while Trump delivered his address.
Those remarks followed Klobuchar’s reference to an inevitable “arc of justice” that would eventually lead to the downfall of Trump, an arc that began on that chilly day.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Trump’s inauguration: “The day when I sat on that stage between Bernie and John McCain and John McCain kept reciting to me names of dictators during that speech because he knew more than any of us what we were facing as a nation.” https://t.co/tPu9ZRoVHY pic.twitter.com/s7nHlwVd3S
— The Hill (@thehill) May 27, 2019
Klobuchar said that the arc started “The day that I sat on that stage between Bernie and John McCain, and John McCain kept reciting to me names of dictators during that speech because he knew more than any of us what we were facing as a nation. He understood it,” she said.
“He knew because he knew this man more than any of us did.”
While those remarks would seem commonplace among disgruntled haters of Trump, the invocation of Sen. McCain didn’t go over well with the senator’s daughter.
She took to Twitter to state in no uncertain terms that her late father’s name had no business being involved in current presidential politics.
McCain, co-host of ABC’s “The View” and political analyst for the network’s news division, tweeted, “On behalf of the entire McCain family – @amyklobuchar please be respectful to all of us and leave my fathers legacy and memory out of presidential politics.”
On behalf of the entire McCain family – @amyklobuchar please be respectful to all of us and leave my fathers legacy and memory out of presidential politics.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) May 27, 2019
Klobuchar’s reference to comments more than two years ago from the late senator — which can’t be adequately confirmed or denied — certainly lacked tact or class, and McCain’s daughter was right to call out Klobuchar for, in essence, using the memory of Sen. McCain to attack and smear Trump.
That said, McCain has her own history of using her father’s legacy and memory to attack the current president that she so vehemently despises, and while that is a bit excusable given the familial relation, her admonition to Klobuchar might hold more weight if McCain herself were to abide by it.
As for the feud between McCain and Trump itself, it is unclear when exactly the men first found themselves at odds with each other. Things certainly ramped up in 2015 during the GOP primary when McCain attacked Trump’s supporters, and Trump responded by attacking McCain’s status as a prisoner-of-war-turned-war hero.
That feud continued off and on, reaching a crescendo when McCain infamously issued a “thumbs down” vote on repealing and replacing Obamacare — a deceptive act that Trump continues to mention.
Meghan McCain has assumed the Trump-hating mantle from her father, but perhaps to her credit, she appears ready to leave her father’s memory aside when criticizing the president.
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