John McCain and Donald Trump
Donald Trump does NOT pay tribute to John McCain’s personal
achievements and only offers sympathy to his family, as its claimed the
president ‘will NOT be invited to the senator’s funeral’
As the nation mourns the loss of Senator John McCain, preparations
for the war hero’s funeral are underway – but one face sure to be
missing from the crowd is president Donald Trump.
McCain had been locked in a war of words with Trump dating back to
2015 and specified months ago that he did not want the president to
attend his funeral.
Those close to the Republican Arizona senator reportedly started
making arrangements for McCain’s funeral in May, nearly a year after he
announced that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive and rare form of
brain cancer.
He died on Saturday at his Arizona home surrounded by his family at the age of 81.
According to a report by the New York Times, McCain’s inner circle
said vice president Mike Pence was invited to the services but not
Trump.
The Times cited McCain’s ‘rocky relationship’ with the president as the reason Trump was not on the invite list.
McCain reportedly spent the last year of his life planning his own
funeral, CNN reported Saturday night. Friends of the senator said he
wanted the service held at three locations: Arizona, the National
Cathedral in Washington and Annapolis, Maryland.
Sources said that McCain had requested that George W Bush and Barack Obama deliver the eulogies at his funeral.
Two family members reiterated to CNN on Saturday that Trump won’t be present at the service.
Trump has not commented on McCain’s wishes that he stay away from
the funeral, but did offer a short message on the senator’s passing.
‘My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain,’ he wrote. ‘Our hearts and prayers are with you!’
Trump’s statement comes a little over a week after he failed to
recognize McCain during a signing of the John S McCain National Defense
Authorization Act, which lawmakers implemented to honor McCain’s
leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee and his years of
service in the Senate.
During the ceremony Trump praised Rep. Martha McSally as
‘terrific’, but did not once mention McCain, even though the event was
in his honor. McSally is seeking the Republican nomination for the
Senate seat in Arizona.
At a June rally in Duluth, Minnesota Trump referenced McCain’s ‘no’
vote on the Affordable Care Act by giving a thumbs-down gesture and
eliciting boos from the crowd. Meghan McCain fired back in a tweet that
Trump’s attacks on her father ‘never stops being gross’.
Trump and McCain’s bad blood stems back to June 2015 when Trump
announced he was running for president and called Mexican immigrants
‘rapists’ and drug runners during a speech.
McCain distanced himself from the future-president saying in an
interview that he disagreed with Trump’s comment. Trump fired back by
calling McCain ‘incompetent’ during a July 2015 rally at the Phoenix
Convention Center.
The back and forth banter continued for the next two years, as
Trump repeatedly launched public attacks – often times on Twitter – at
McCain. In a 2016 tweet Trump slammed the senator as ‘foul mouthed’ and
in a 2017 post he lashed out at McCain for voting against the Affordable
Care Act.
‘3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down.
As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!’ he wrote.
At one point during the two politician’s bitter feud, Trump mocked
McCain’s record as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War saying that
McCain was only labeled a hero ‘because he was captured’ and he liked ‘people that weren’t captured’.
For his part, McCain publicly criticized Trump on numerous
occasions. In a July statement, McCain lashed out at the president after
Trump said during a meeting in Helsinki with Russian president Vladimir
Putin that he accepted Russia’s claim that that they did not meddle in
the US presidential election.
McCain said of Trump’s comments: ‘No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant’.
McCain again bashed Trump in March when Trump congratulated Putin on re-election.
‘An American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections,’ McCain said.
The senator also wrote about his long-standing feud with Trump in
his memoir The Restless Wave saying that Trump’s behavior was
disturbing.
‘His lack of empathy for refugees, innocent, persecuted, desperate men, women, and children, is disturbing,’ the book read. ‘The
way he speaks about them is appalling, as if welfare or terrorism were
the only purposes they could have in coming to our country.’
‘His reaction to unflattering news stories, calling them “fake
news,” whether they’re credible or not, is copied by autocrats who want
to discredit and control a free press,’ McCain wrote. ‘He has
declined to distinguish the actions of our government from the crimes of
despotic ones. He has showered with praise some of the world’s worst
tyrants.’
***
Source: Daily Mail UK