John McCain's Son Prefers Presidents Who Don't Trash War Dead At Arlington

This is good news from Jimmy McCain.

Then-Sgt. James McCain reads the poem ‘Requiem’ at John McCain’s funeral, September 1, 2018. Video screenshot, ABC News.

When Donald Trump, running for president in 2015, dismissed the late Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) as “not a war hero” because he got captured and that was nothing to be proud of, McCain’s youngest son Jimmy found it very hurtful at the time, but he chalked it up to Trump being a jerk engaging in low politics — but politics nonetheless.

“One thing about John McCain is that he chose a public life,” Jimmy McCain told CNN in an interview that aired yesterday. “So to attack him is really not out of the realm of his job description.”

But when Trump went to Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery last week so he could film a campaign ad and take photos of himself grinning like an idiot and giving a thumbs-up while standing on the graves of those who recently died in service to their country, that was too much for 1st Lt. McCain, who has served in the Army for 17 years and is an intelligence officer in the 158th Infantry Regiment. (McCain also made clear he was speaking only for himself, not the Army.)

“It just blows me away,” McCain told CNN. He added, “I just think that for anyone who’s done a lot of time in their uniform, they just understand that inherently — that it’s not about you there. It’s about these people who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their country.”

McCain also told CNN that he had changed his voter registration from independent to Democratic a few weeks ago — before Trump’s desecration of Arlington — and that he plans to vote for Kamala Harris.

McCain noted that even if Trump had the approval of two families whose loved ones are buried there, using Arlington as a backdrop for campaigning is still illegal, and “these men and women that are laying in the ground there have no choice” as to whether they would become props in a political message they and their families had no say over.

CNN notes that while other members of the McCain family have made it clear that they want nothing to do with Trump, Jimmy McCain is the first in the family to actually leave the Republican Party. Cindy McCain, the senator’s widow, endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, and Meghan McCain, Jimmy’s sister who we believe was on television a few times, has frequently criticized Trump but simply can’t bring herself to vote for that Harris woman, because Meghan McCain has always been an asshole. Or as she put it on Twitter last week, “Please stop trying to turn me into a progressive. It’s a fever dream. I’m a lifelong, generational conservative.” As we say, an asshole.

After the CNN story ran, Meghan McCain reiterated that while she greatly respects “the wide variety of political opinions of all of my family members and love them all very much,” she remains a “proud member of the Republican Party and hope for brighter days ahead.” She added she would be voting for neither Harris nor Trump, so congratulations, Nikki Haley or Harold Stassen we guess.

Jimmy McCain said that the Arlington debacle was especially painful in light of the timing: When Trump did his little stunt, McCain had just returned to the US from a

seven-month deployment to a small US base on the Jordan-Syria border known as Tower 22.

He arrived there just weeks after three US service members were killed [in January] on the base in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants, and he says he thought of them when he saw Trump posing last Monday in front of gravestones.

“It was a violation,” McCain said. “That mother, that sister, those families, see that — and it’s a painful experience.”

In response to McCain’s criticism of the Great Man and his perfectly acceptable lawbreaking and smirking over the graves of heroes, figures in the online MAGA assholosphere have screamed, flung their own shit, and pointed at old video of a 1999 presidential campaign ad in which John McCain spoke about his own military service, as well as the military careers of his father and grandfather. That ad featured two seconds of footage of Sen. McCain walking through Arlington; after a rebuke from the Army and criticism from vets and others, McCain agreed it was improper and cut the two seconds of footage.

Oh, what a boring detail — which Newsweek only mentions after a full airing of grievances from the rightwing turds calling Jimmy McCain the biggest hypocrite in the world for criticizing Trump.

Among other brilliant observations from the online jerks, we had Jack Posobiec posting the first version of the ad (repeating the Arlington footage three times) and adding “John McCain filmed a political ad at Arlington Cemetery Be a shame if this went viral.” Another MAGA shitstain, Colin Rugg, puckishly asked, “Will Jimmy be condemning his father?” (Again, John McCain cut the footage, so if Jimmy McCain says anything, he’ll probably point out that very subtle difference.) And Diaper Aficionado Charlie Kirk was simply over the moon, tweeting, “This is hilarious. Also, who cares who John McCain's son is going to vote for?” Jimmy McCain: completely insignificant and America’s greatest hypocrite as long as you only present half the story.

In conclusion, this is, for the first time in history, very bad news for John McCain.

---

Donald Trump Can't Believe People Don't Like His Straight Talk On Loser POWs

Ghouls Just Want To Have Fun At Arlington National Cemetery

---

[CNN / Newsweek]

Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. If you can, please become a paid subscriber, or if a one-time donation works better for you, we think that’s pretty cool too!