Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, said this weekend her husband would be “disgusted” in the Republican Party’s current state under President Trump.
During an interview with CNN’s “The Axe Files” on Saturday, host David Axelrod asked Mrs. McCain what her husband would “be saying right now.”
“Oh, gosh. I think he’d be disgusted with some of the stuff that’s going on. I really do,” Mrs. McCain said.
“I think what he’d be saying was, is that he’d rail against what’s going on. And I think John provided a lot of cover for other members, and when he would do it, then they could get behind him kind of thing and I’m not seeing a real rudder in the Senate right now, in all this.”
When Mr. Axelrod asked Mrs. McCain why she thought Republicans had a “reign of terror” against “criticizing” the president, she said, “I think it has to do with reelections and keeping our heads down.”
“I’m not being critical because I understand what it means to get reelected, but at some point, you have to do what you were elected to do and that is represent the country, as well as your local people,” she said.
“But, I think John would be … I know he’d be terribly upset about this whole thing. He was upset before he died when he saw what was going on. I just wish he were here, like all of us. I wish he were here. We need him more than ever. We really do,” Mrs. McCain added.
Mr. Trump has continued a feud with the late GOP senator even after his death, telling reporters in March “I was never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be.”
Mr. Trump also criticized McCain for failing to provide the crucial vote to repeal Obamacare in July 2018, shortly before his death from brain cancer.
If McCain had provided the decisive vote, the president said, “Our country would have saved a trillion and we would have had great health care.”
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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