John McCain Battles Donald Trump With His Dying Breaths
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/05/opinion/sunday/john-mccain-trump.html
Senator Lindsey Graham once described his friend John McCain as someone who would “run across the street to get in a good fight.”
McCain’s final battle came straight to him.
I’m not talking about the one against brain cancer, which has kept the 81-year-old senator at home in Arizona for months and prompted many friends, including Joe Biden, to travel there recently to see him, possibly for the last time. I’m talking about the one against Donald Trump.
McCain has waged it in public remarks since Trump’s election , including a speech in Philadelphia last October, when he pushed back against the “half-baked, spurious nationalism” that was gripping too many Americans and lamented the abdication of America’s moral leadership in the world.
He wages it in a forthcoming book, “The Restless Wave,” an advance excerpt of which includes his complaint that Trump fails “to distinguish the actions of our government from the crimes of despotic ones” and that he prioritizes “a reality-show facsimile of toughness” over “any of our values.”
The fight isn’t really between two men. It’s between two takes on what matters most in this messy world. I might as well be blunt: It’s between the high road and the gutter. McCain has always believed, to his core, in sacrifice, honor and allegiance to something larger than oneself. Trump believes in Trump, and whatever wreckage he causes in deference to that god is of no concern.
“Trump is in every single way the opposite of John McCain,” Bob Kerrey told me recently. “He may be the opposite of every president we ever had.” Kerrey and McCain both served in Vietnam, they overlapped in the Senate and they stay in touch. So Kerrey knows that Trump has caused McCain no small measure of anguish, but less because of Trump’s crassness and the daily tragicomedy of his administration — this, too, shall pass — than because of “the impact on democracy.” It could be enduring, and it could be profound.
That’s why a patriot like him could never sit this one out.
Trump finds McCain’s biography and example threatening; that was obvious in an insult in the summer of 2015, just a month into Trump’s presidential campaign. At a forum in Iowa, Trump mocked McCain’s many years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam — years during which McCain refused offers of release because he didn’t want to be a tool of North Vietnamese propaganda — by saying: “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”
McCain brushed it off. “He never mentioned it,” Gen. David Petraeus, who sits on the board of the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University , told me. “I raised it with him one time. I said, ‘I just want to assure you that everyone I know — and I — regard you as an extraordinary hero.’ He said: ‘I know. It’s nothing.’”
It’s all too easy, in the context of Trump, to idealize political leaders who came before him and airbrush their flaws. McCain has his share, including the occasional rashness reflected in his selection of Sarah Palin as a running mate in 2008. Did she help pave the way for Trump? What a cruel irony if so.
But it’s also true that two Republican titans near the end of their days provide crystalline counterpoints to Trump — they’re statesmen to his salesman. One is George H. W. Bush, the former president, and my colleague Bret Stephens recently wrote a gorgeous meditation on the dichotomy of Bush’s versus Trump’s approach to leadership.
The other is McCain, who presents a similar dichotomy.
CNN reported Wednesday that Trump, to answer questions about his health when he was a candidate, dictated that ludicrous, half-page doctor’s note that raved about his “astonishingly excellent” condition. McCain answered health questions during the 2008 campaign by making several doctors from the Mayo Clinic available to reporters and by giving some reporters a look, albeit time-limited, at pages upon pages of his actual medical records.
Trump cited bone spurs in his heels to avoid Vietnam. McCain, a Navy pilot, had an arm broken and ribs cracked during the torture that he endured while imprisoned by the North Vietnamese.
Trump jump-started his political career with the lie that Barack Obama was born outside the United States and thus an illegitimate president. During the last weeks of Trump’s presidential campaign, he branded Hillary Clinton a criminal and encouraged supporters to chant, “Lock her up.”
During the last weeks of McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, he grew so concerned about supporters’ hostility to and misconceptions about Obama that he corrected and essentially chided them. “He is a decent person,” he told a man who had volunteered that he was “scared” of an Obama presidency. When a woman at that same campaign event chimed in that Obama was “an Arab,” McCain told her that she was wrong. “He’s a decent family man,” he added.
Trump is never to blame and quick to malign onetime allies who have grown inconvenient. McCain never badmouthed Palin, despite ample reason. “John McCain doesn’t throw people under the bus for his decisions,” Petraeus said, adding, when I asked him how rare that was, “Oh, man, just look around.”
Trump demands instant gratification. McCain served for four years in the House before his three decades in the Senate, during which he worked his way up to his cherished post as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He tried — and failed — to get the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 before succeeding eight years later.
Trump invites pity for all the slights he suffers plus plenty that he only imagines, and he readily boasts about achievements actual and hallucinated. “I don’t have a complaint,” McCain says in his book, which was written with Mark Salter and will be released on May 22. He’s grateful, he adds, that he “made a small place for myself in the story of America.” A small place. I sometimes forget, thanks to Trump, what the music of understatement sounds like.
“There is a scarcity of humility in politics these days,” McCain writes. I wonder if he has anyone particular in mind. No, that’s a lie: All of us know precisely which someone he has in mind, the same person in his thoughts when, in Munich in February 2017, he expressed alarm about an “increasing turn away from universal values and toward old ties of blood and race,” about “the hardening resentment we see toward immigrants” and about “the growing inability—and even unwillingness—to separate truth from lies.”
In his new book he calls out Trump by name, saying that the president’s cries of “fake news” are “copied by autocrats who want to discredit and control a free press” and that his lack of empathy for refugees is “appalling.” “The world expects us to be concerned with the condition of humanity,” McCain writes. “We should be proud of that reputation. I’m not sure the president understands that.”
Kerrey said that “history is not going to be kind to those who were silent” about Trump’s attack on truth, norms, civility and so much else. Has McCain been quite vocal enough? “I think history will say that he was in the top 10 percent of the class,” Kerrey said. “Could have been higher.”
Donald Critchlow , a professor of political science at Arizona State University, told me: “If Trump’s presidency fails, Senator McCain will be remembered as a Jeremiah who warned that the party had taken a road to perdition.” And if it succeeds? Then he is “part of an old guard” vainly resisting a new day, Critchlow said.
Either way he has my gratitude. Although I disagree with many of his political views, including his too-keen itch for foreign intervention, that doesn’t prevent me from admiring him enormously. Nor should it, a point that he makes in his book.
“I don’t remember another time in my life when so many Americans considered someone’s partisan affiliation a test of whether that person was entitled to their respect,” he writes, ruefully, adding that while Biden, Ted Kennedy and other Democratic friends of his never voted for the same candidate for president as he did, his friendships with them “made my life richer, and made me a better senator and a better person.”
Such grace is unimaginable from Trump. That’s why it’s so vital that McCain is using his waning time to model it.
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John McCain is having his last wishes amended to stipulate that Donald Trump is not to be invited to attend his funeral.
I am not sure that sentence is true but it was the subject of conjecture on a news show this morning. I hope it is true. A post-death announcement that McCain doesn't want President* Trump at his funeral would be a great message for America.
Agreed. President Trump said some nasty things about McCain and it's clear McCain couldn't get over them. The Senator did enormous damage to the President, he got his revenge.
I only have one question:
In view of how much time Sen McCain has missed in the Senate, during some important times, (he cant seem to fullfil his duties to his state or country) why dosen't he retire?
I would suspect that his condition is much worse than the public is being told. "Retiring" probably isn't much of a priority these days.
So Arizona only has one Senator? What about the nation and the work of the Senate?
why would a globalist sitting on the republican side risk giving the seat back to a real republican any sooner than required??
We have one of the least productive congress' in history, I am sure they can limp along and do nothing like they always do while waiting for McCain to expire.
Huh? That makes no sense at all.
Um-hum, and that seems to be JUUUUUUST the way you want it.
John McCain...thank you for your military service, but as a Senator you were a complete disgrace
I edited that post above for clarity.
but no matter how ya slice it... john mccain is a traitor to his party and his country.
mccain is a globlaist prick who should be under a jail somewhere.
Translation: Why wouldn't a self respecting person who has been a member of the Republican Party since he got into politics side with a close minded, misogynistic, racist shithead like Donald Trump?
Answer: Self Respect and, love of country.
John McCain is a selfless patriot. He couldn't care less what a draft-dodging coward and moron like Trump thinks of him. He is fighting Trump because of the damage our Dirtbag-in-Chief is doing to democracy.
What is your definition of a "real republican"?
Yeah right and if he had made comments supporting Trump you’d be saying he was a sick, crazy old Republican.
McCain is free to do as he wishes, attempting to politicize his dying comments to advance your narrative is beyond the pale John ...... even for you.
Oh please, the republicans tap danced on "Benghazi(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)" for 4 years using those deaths to advance their political narrative, you have zero right to be pointing out anyone.
so there is no difference between...
and...
how convenient :)
I am not getting into this crap with you, I used it to make a point. But....after 9 investigations if you are still thinking that someone somewhere lied, I would suggest the GOP hire better investigators. You had 4 fucking years and came up with nothing, either there was no wrongdoing or, the republican investigators are a bunch of fucking retards. Let it go, move on.
They can't.
Removed for Skirting the CoC "BF"
saying "wanting to know the truth" is not the same as saying "I question the result of the investigations"
stop playing with your imagination... your palms will grow hair.
and back to the point... not that same as politizing a dead fool still squalking.
Are you saying nine investigations didnt get at the truth? There must have been a conspiracy !
I guess this applies to you also...
saying "wanting to know the truth" is not the same as saying "I question the result of the investigations"
stop playing with your imagination... your palms will grow hair.
The truth is that the video played a part in the motivation for the attack at Benghazi. You are the one who doesn't want to know the truth.
You seem triggered.
not a chance... try again. hint: the sliding conversation does not work on me
you seem defeated so are moving to personal attacks.
and that is me for the win
So, you question the investigators that the Republicans sent to investigate the Benghazi attack, remember, the Republicans were in charge of that investigation, not the Democrats. They investigated nine times and, found nothing.
somewhere under the rainbow, there is a difference between reading and reading comprehension.
I clearly said...
so for now, you are dismissed.
Cheers
Did I bring Benghazi into this conversation, hell into any conversation here?
No I didn’t. Is John using a dying mans words to advance his political agenda? Damn right he is. That’s his entire purpose with this and it’s tacky as hell.
So yeah, nice try but I have every right in the world and I know that pisses folks like you off endlessly.
The party of “inclusion” and “compassion” is about far from those two things as one can get sometimes.
7 probes into Benghazi .. just to be accurate...
Sounds like an open admission that the GOP has no competent investigators.
How about why this administration and the worthless GOP Congress not having an investigation of the four Special Forces soldiers killed in Niger.
You'll get crickets on that.
did the current admin lie and say they died because of a so-called video?
You must be really fed up. LOL!
I also heard on a show today that he wants President Obama and, George W. Bush to give the eulogy. Can we say slam, if this is all true?
I think that Barak Obama would be the right person to give that eulogy.
If you recall the consequential 2008 election, McCain chose the high road when it came to his opponent. When advised to use Obama's associations with the Rev Wright and Bill Ayers, McCain said no way! When supporters at McCain rallies began to denounce Obama mockingly, McCain stopped them. Though McCain was not really a worthy opponent for Obama and the financial crisis, which broke in October of 2008, all but assured an Obama victory, McCain at least kept his campaign decent. It is only fitting then that Barak Obama honor him.
I think it goes deeper than this, McCain during the election in 2008 always called Obama a decent man and, when that one supporter in a campaign rally called Obama an Arab, McCain said she was wrong.
Correct. McCain, at least then, had a moral compass. I always regarded him as a principled moderate, however, in the end his revenge driven animosity for Donald Trump ruined what could have been a distinguished career in the US Senate. They say Trump brings out the worst in his opponents and he certainly found the flaw in John McCain.
McCain would not stoop lying to Americans or spreading Russian state propaganda to Americans either. Once a political movement, in this case the once Grand Old Party of Abe Lincoln now referred to merely as 'the gop', has decided that any means no matter if illegal or immoral are justified for a misbegotten cause is losing BIGLY...
I think you need to flip this, Trumps opponents bring out the worst in Trump and, McCain found the flaw in Trump.
I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on that one.
Lets see what the future hold first shall we. Mccain may be shown to be correct. I always seen Senator McCain as a republican champion who advocated for the middle class and the poor of America.
Yep, I believe that McCain has more integrity in his little pinky than Trump has in his whole body.
Was he voting in their behalf or ignoring the interests of millions of Americans to spite Trump?
I know you meant "than Trump has in his whole body". Integrity is an admirable quality. It also means voting for something that helps the people, your party and yes, even someone you despise. In the end McCain forgot his integrity. He lost his way.
Thanks I corrected the mistake.
NP, I don't take points off for mistakes anybody can make.
See, there I don't think that McCain lost his integrity because he didn't vote for things that Trump wanted passed, I think he looked at the bills and, realized that what Trump wanted wasn't good for America and, so, didn't vote for it.
Actually, both McCain and Palin used Obama's association with Ayers AND Rev. Wright during the campaign.
Yes, you could make that case, but didn't John McCain say that if the Governor of Arizona went along with the Obamacare Bill, he would?
" McCain suggested he might "reluctantly" vote for a new Obamacare replacement bill if Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey supported the legislation — which the governor promptly did."
That indicates to me that McCain sought to use the Governor as an excuse to vote against the bill - unfortunately the Governor went the other way and McCain broke his word. IMO he had no intention of voting for that Bill. He wanted to deny Trump. That is inexcusable for a US Senator.
What about the tax bill? McCain couldn't make it due to illness forcing the Vice President to be there for the vote. That was when he should have shown a bit of integrity and resigned. If you can't fulfill the responsibilities of the office, it's time to resign.
I suppose you have links?
Yep. I respect McCain in a lot of ways but having a heathy humility is not one of them. His ego wouldn’t let him step aside when he should have.
People can try and blame politics all they want but that is not the main reason.
Ego is.
There I think that McCain saw that the bill would do nothing for the American people but, would do everything for Big Pharma and, decided to vote against it.
McCain's no fool, he knew that with his vote against the replacement bill still in Trumps craw voting against the tax bill would not only piss off Trump but, some very big Republican donors, like the Koch's so, he decided to be sick that day.
Understand, I don't think that any politician or, business man is altruistic and, most aren't that honest, I know that Trump had reasons other than not liking the bills to kill them or, not vote for them but, I don't think it is pettiness that is the reason, that is strictly a Trump trait.
I suppose you do too.
..
Former President Obama dismissed Rev Wright as a racial issue that America still needs to deal with .. which makes no sense to me, as America did not attend Rev Wrights church for 20'ish years .. what did it have to do with race?
None of that is important, what is, is the fact that McCain did not go after Obama for his connection to Rev Wright!!!
This might have had something to do with McCain's decision:
Fail!!!
I disagree, McCain will always be known for his distinguished career. He made mistakes during his military service but was ultimately a hero. He endured way more mentally and physically than most ever will. For Chump to try to diminish his service was revolting. Chump is a pig.
I don't think it ego so much as it is him being a Type A personality. Type A's are super driven to work, even if they are physically hampered by either injury or disease. Both of my parents were Type A's and slow down was not hard wired in either of them.
Perhaps but a place and a time for everything right?
When i'm his age and/or if ever as sick as he is right now, i promise you i won't be worrying about people or things i disagree with.
His choice and i respect that but it's a pretty sad choice IMO.
No it wouldn't. It would just show the petty vindictiveness of McCain. People are tired of all the hateful talk.
He wouldn't attend anyway, I am betting. His excuse would be he does not want to be a disruption, the same excuse he used for Mrs. Bush's funeral.
"He wouldn't attend anyway,"
Yeppers......being such a YUGE distraction over all the other dignitaries and officials who would likely attend, would put him in a very bad eye.
Besides, Mrs. Bush wasn't worth missing a day of golf, so why would someone as unimportant as McCain come close to being worthy?
Understandably dying men admit sins, beg forgiveness and attempt to make amends...
I can only imagine the regrets McCain must feel now for not denouncing Trump in 2016.
It must be disillusioning that the Grand Old Party of Lincoln has devolved to merely gop.
I don't blame him one bit.
Can anyone honestly say that they would want someone who disparaged them in public to attend their funeral.
There would be an assumption that the President would attend the funeral of a prominent sitting senator who has been a national figure for so long.
In order to keep Trump away, McCain will probably have to put it in writing.
And even then Trump could likely just go anyway.
Pence will go in Trump's absence.
True, and we know that trumptard would just make it about himself anyway. Same reason he didn't want to go to Barbara Bush's funeral, it wasn't about him, he wouldn't be the center of attention, so why go? Trump has the maturity of a 12 year old child.
That's an insult to 12 year olds.
Once we get rid of that rino we can finish off Obamacare. McCain is deep state to the core.
Translation: McCain is a TRUE Patriot, unlike Trump.
Firstly. who is we? What did y'all do to McCain to finish him off? And, isn't that kinda "Deep State"?
The only 'deep state' is the state of right wing conspiracy nuts' heads up their asses. John McCain is a great American patriot. Give your head a shake, Deano, bang it off the table a few times. Better?
I think you are forgetting the illuminati, the Masons the Knights of Columbus and Mr. Rogers entire neighborhood. The "deep State" is the rights go to boogey man because anything real will be exposed.
Why is it that every time a republican does something the far right wing does, they immediately become a rino? Honestly, if a democrat didn't do everything I think is right and I immediately labeled them a republican, in my world, there would be no democrats at all.
McCain? American hero and a good man, but I hate his politics.
"I do not belong to an organized political party. I am a Democrat" - Will Rogers - A Lifelong Democrat...
Ah yes, Will Rogers. Such an astute political observer. So much so that he supported and befriended guys like Mussolini.
Yep, a life long Democrat.
Link?
My link is history. You must have skipped that day.
Progressives have always loved Fascism and Communism.
Don’t get me wrong, I like his humor. Just not most of his politics.
Had he not died before Mussolini really started playing his greatest hits Rogers likely would have made fun of himself for being such a dumb-ass on the topic.
Trump is not a progressive!
I read this morning on msn that a source revealed this. What source?
They don't reveal their sources, Mango, have another coffee.
I'm thinking it's either his wife or, the family lawyer.
I think I will wait for a cocktail.
I say the butler!
Is this it?
How many sources do you need Magnolia? Take your pick or two or three.
McCain does not want Trump at his funeral : reports
May 06, 2018 · Senator John McCain , 81 and battling brain cancer, has made clear he does not want President Donald Trump to attend his funeral …
McCain Tells Inner Circle He Does Not Want President Trump ...
To his death Senator John McCain is holding his ... He Does Not Want President Trump at His Funeral ... President Pence attend — but not President Trump , ...
Report: McCain Doesn’t Want Trump at Funeral
May 06, 2018 · Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) reportedly does not want President Donald Trump to attend his funeral . Instead, those close to the ailing Senator have reportedly indicated that he wants Vice President Mike Pence to attend and former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush to be eulogists.
John McCain doesn’t want Donald Trump to attend his ...
A recent report from the New York Times claims that Senator John McCain , 81, who is fighting brain cancer, does not want U.S. President Donald Trump to attend his funeral …
Report: John McCain Does Not Want President Trump at His ...
May 06, 2018 · Arizona Senator John McCain has reportedly expressed his desire, or lack thereof, to have President Donald J. Trump at his funeral . According to the New York Times, he does not want the man there at all.
McCain Doesn't Want Trump at His Funeral - Political …
May 05, 2018 · People close to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) have told the White House that the ailing Arizona lawmaker does not want President Trump to attend his funeral and would like Vice President Mike Pence to come instead, NBC News reports.
McCain does not want Trump at his funeral : reports - …
Washington (AFP) – Senator John McCain , 81 and battling brain cancer, has made clear he does not want President Donald Trump to attend his funeral …
McCain doesn't want Trump at funeral , friends tell …
People within Sen. John McCain ’s inner circle have informed the White House that the Arizona Republican does not want President Donald Trump at his funeral and would like Vice President Mike Pence to attend instead, according to a source close to McCain .
John McCain does not want Donald Trump at his funeral …
McCain has been fighting an aggressive form of brain cancer for more than a year. WASHINGTON: Senator John McCain , 81 and battling brain cancer, has made clear he does not want President Donald Trump to attend his funeral , US media reported today. McCain …
McCain doesn’t want Trump at his funeral - nypost.com
May 05, 2018 · McCain doesn’t want Trump at his funeral . By Mary Kay Linge. ... who served with McCain in Congress, will be asked to attend the service, ...
So now it's come to the point where a dying man is used as fodder to score cheap political points by the left. And here I thought Randa Jarrar had set a new low.
It's fun and funny to see you try to juggle what McCain's wishes are into some kind of "left conspiracy." But silliness like this is the rightwing's stock-in-trade.
The left is certainly wasting no time in using this as another low brow attack against Trump.
If it's a 'low blow attack' it is being waged by McCain.
Even the left could never go as low as Trump.
Still no source.....I am telling you it was the butler!
McCain and his family desires not to have Trump attend.
Well and good. Let the Trump wallow in his Hannity, Alex Jones and MAGA-Brain toadies.
Where is Melania? And Ivanka?
Winners beat brain cancer. Trump only likes winners.
Only losers get captured too. If it wasn't for those darn bone spurs, Trump would have been the greatest soldier EVER!
This is hilarious. The very people that questioned McCain's military service, his health and fitness to hold any office, and his morales and character when he was running for POTU against Barack Obama; are now holding him up as being a pillar of virtue for his feud with Trump.
Classic.
I lost all respect for McCain when he sold out to win the Republican nomination; and then chose Palin for his running mate.
McCain was an Establishment politician all the way. (His maverick tab was pure media BS). He was a career politician more concerned with keeping his job than actually challenging the system.
Yep, spot on.
That said i do hope he decides the limited time he has left is better spent with family and friends. I saw his son in law on one of the Sunday morning shows and he was clearly broken up by the situation. What family member wouldn't be?
I hope McCain can find peace before he goes. Life is too short not to.