Trump Refused To Release Prepared White House Statement Calling John McCain A ‘Hero’

The five-time draft dodger in the White House refused to release a prepared statement from his staff that praised John McCain‘s record as a war hero a day after he passed away from brain cancer in Arizona.

According to The Washington Post, “President Trump nixed issuing a statement that praised the heroism and life of Sen. John McCain, telling senior aides he preferred to issue a tweet before posting one Saturday night that did not include any kind words for the late Arizona Republican.”

The half-assed tweet Trump posted shortly after McCain’s death mentioned nothing of the Arizona senator’s service in Vietnam, where he spent over five years enduring torture as a prisoner of war.

Despite the fact that Trump‘s staff had finalized a statement recognizing McCain’s heroic service, Trump declined to release it.

More from The Washington Post:

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and other White House aides advocated for an official statement that gave the decorated Vietnam War POW plaudits for his military and Senate service and called him a “hero,” according to current and former White House aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. The original statement was drafted before McCain died Saturday, and Sanders and others edited a final version this weekend that was ready for the president, the aides said.

But Trump told aides he wanted to post a brief tweet instead, and the statement praising McCain’s life was not released.

“We elected a president with no redeeming qualities as a human being.”

As former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau tweeted on Sunday night following the Post’s report, “We elected a president with no redeeming qualities as a human being.”

Donald Trump, a man who happily praises Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and Saddam Hussein, couldn’t muster the humanity to give the same respect to John McCain, an American hero who spent a lifetime fighting for this country.

McCain served America for decades, doing more in ten seconds of service in Vietnam than Trump will ever do in his life. A respectable president has an obligation to honor that service, regardless of whatever petty grudge he might have. That’s what a commander-in-chief does.

Trump? He just stomped off to his sandbox like the whiny third-grade boy that he is. It’s no surprise that the late, great John McCain wanted this president nowhere near his funeral.

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Sean Colarossi

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.