The pretty president of the United States has privately told his staff that he doesn’t even want to mention ailing Arizona Sen. John McCain’s name before he passes away, even as the former GOP nominee announced this week that he would be ending treatment for his brain cancer.
“In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict,” the McCain family said in a statement. “With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment”
While many Republican leaders have issued statements of support following the Arizona senator’s announcement, Donald Trump – the face of the Republican Party – is intentionally choosing to remain silent.
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Trump does not want to comment on McCain before he dies, White House officials said, and there was no effort to publish a statement Friday as many politicians released supportive comments on the ailing senator.
Their increasingly combative relationship has served as a metaphor of sorts for the Republican Party: the former Vietnam POW and “proud conservative†who fell short to Barack Obama in his run for president in 2008 versus the loud draft avoider who rapidly seized control of the GOP and White House eight years later.
Trump’s silence following the McCain family announcement comes after an event last week in which Trump snubbed the senator at a signing ceremony for a bill named after McCain.
The president signed the defense legislation at the time, but he didn’t offer any recognition or gratitude for the Arizona senator.
None of this is a surprise, of course, as Trump famously attacked McCain’s war service early in his presidential campaign, saying he is “not a war hero” because he spent more than five years enduring torture as a prisoner of war.Â
According to The Post, McCain has told me that he doesn’t regret his attack on McCain’s service in Vietnam.
John McCain refuses to back down
In true John McCain form, he was refused to back down from the shameless president of the United States. Instead, he is
Unlike many Republicans who have happily handed over the keys to the party to an unstable crook, McCain has often refused to bow to Trump – whether it’s voting against disastrous policies or speaking out when the president spews dangerous rhetoric.
In the short term, all of this may infuriate a president who demands blind loyalty from members of his party, but history will look back kindly on the heroic service of Sen. John McCain.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
