Donald Trump once again attacked the late Sen. John McCain today, seven months after his death, this time complaining he didn’t get a ‘thank you’ for approving late senator’s funeral
At a White House event at a tank manufacturing facility in Lima, Ohio, Trump lashed out again at McCain, for the fifth day in a row, saying, “I endorsed him at his request and I gave him the kind of funeral he wanted, which as president I had to approve.”
“I don’t care about this,” Trump continued. “I didn’t get a thank you. That’s okay. We sent him on the way. But I wasn’t a fan of John McCain.”
Outbursts like today’s and those that have preceded it, were too much for Sen. Johnny Isakson to take.
The Georgia Republican could not stand the “unthinkable” last year when the White House flag lowered — and then soon raised — its flag from half-staff to recognize the death of McCain.
That was one moment among others that Isakson has said is a pattern of Trump’s attacks on McCain.
And after an escalation of bitter words from the president this week, Isakson took to the airwaves in a rare moment for his party: A stinging rebuke of Trump.
“Its deplorable what he said,” Isaskon said today as he decried the public tear down of McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent years in brutal captivity in Vietnam. “There aren’t Democratic casualties or Republican casualties on the battlefield,” he said.
“I just want to lay it on the line, that the country deserves better, the McCain family deserves better. I don’t care if he’s president of United States, owns all the real estate in New York, or is building the greatest immigration system in the world. Nothing is more important than the integrity of the country and those who fought and risked their lives for all of us.”
Trump today also suggested the Vietnam war hero should have come to him after he was first handed a copy of a dossier, which contained salacious and unverified claims about Trump’s comments in a Moscow hotel room as well as claims of Russian influence over Trump’s circle.
“John McCain received the fake and phony dossier. Did you hear about the dossier? It was paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton, right? And John McCain got it. He got it. And what did he do? He didn’t call me. He turned it over to the FBI hoping to put me in jeopardy. And that’s not the nicest thing to do,” Trump said.
Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, McCain’s first congressional chief of staff, said the deceased Senator “immediately delivered” the infamous Trump dossier to the FBI after he obtained it.
Woods said that is what a “good American” and a statesman does.
“He got the information and he read it and it’s pretty explosive. He immediately delivered it to the FBI and said this is for you all to deal with. That’s what a statesman does. That’s what a good American does. And that’s what John McCain did,” Woods said Monday night on CNN.
Trump has spent days unloading on the legacy of McCain, who died of brain cancer last year, with several tweets this week.
On Tuesday, he attacked McCain’s vote against repealing Obamacare.
[WATCH: Jim Heath Profiles Sen. John McCain]
“I think that’s a disgrace, plus there are other things,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “I was never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be.”
Meghan McCain, a co-host of ABC’s “The View,” blasted Trump and defended her father on Wednesday.
Her father “would think it was hilarious that our president was so jealous of him that he was dominating the news cycle in death,” she said.
Trump’s attacks have also appeared to unleash trolls targeting the McCain family. Soon after the president’s Oval Office remarks, Cindy McCain posted a profanity-laced message she received on Facebook.
A woman called John McCain “traitorous” and celebrated his death.
“I want to make sure all of you could see how kind and loving a stranger can be,” Cindy McCain wrote on Twitter, referring to the woman.
I want to make sure all of you could see how kind and loving a stranger can be. I’m posting her note for her family and friends could see. pic.twitter.com/GoNCm0fv4U
— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) March 19, 2019
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) rallied to McCain’s defense Wednesday.
I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) March 19, 2019
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of McCain’s closest allies, initially tweeted over the weekend a defense of McCain without mentioning Trump.
On Monday, he called Trump’s rhetoric a “huge mistake.”
On Wednesday he went even farther: “The president’s comments about Senator McCain hurt him more than they hurt the legacy of Senator McCain.”
“I’ve gotten to know the president, we have a good working relationship. I like him. I don’t like it when he says things about my friend John McCain,” Graham said.
Sen. Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican appointed to McCain’s former seat, also defended the former senator.
John McCain is an American hero and I am thankful for his life of service and legacy to our country and Arizona. Everyone should give him and his family the respect, admiration, and peace they deserve.
— Martha McSally (@SenMcSallyAZ) March 20, 2019
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has called Trump’s attacks on McCain “repulsive” and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) called it “despicable.”
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) was singled out by the Arizona Republic for being slow to defend McCain.
“Arizonans know how I feel about John McCain. Arizonans also know how I feel about responding to President Trump’s statements and tweets. John McCain was my hero,” Sinema said this afternoon.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a Trump ally, praised McCain in a tweet but did not address the president’s attacks against him.
Trump’s attacks on McCain go back decades, suggesting in 1999 that being captured and being a Prisoner of War does not make anyone a hero.
In February, just weeks after McCain’s funeral, he criticized the late senators book.