Sen John McCain has sharply criticized Donald Trump’s comments about the family of a dead Muslim US army captain, saying, “while our party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us”.
Mr McCain, a war veteran whose service and capture in Vietnam Mr Trump also once derided, had stayed largely silent over the weekend as Trump’s feud with the parents of Capt Humayun Khan brewed, waiting until Monday morning to release a prepared statement.
“In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s parents,” he wrote. “He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States, to say nothing of entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr Trump’s statement. I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates.”
Reverence for the military has been at the core of Mr McCain’s career. He was his party’s nominee in 2008 and currently serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and has a close allegiance to families of those killed in conflict. Mr McCain is now in a tough re-election battle in his home state of Arizona.
While his statement, like that of congressional Republican leaders, fell short of rescinding his reluctant endorsement of Trump, it was a detailed and personal condemnation. “I wear a bracelet bearing the name of a fallen hero, Matthew Stanley, which his mother, Lynn, gave me in 2007, at a town-hall meeting in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. His memory and the memory of our great leaders deserve better from me,” Mr McCain wrote.
“Make no mistake: I do not valorise our military out of some unfamiliar instinct. I grew up in a military family, and have my own record of service, and have stayed closely engaged with our armed forces throughout my public career. In the American system, the military has value only inasmuch as it protects and defends the liberties of the people.”
He added: “In the end, I am morally bound to speak only to the things that command my allegiance, and to which I have dedicated my life’s work: the Republican Party, and more important, the United States of America. I will not refrain from doing my utmost by those lights simply because it may benefit others with whom I disagree. I claim no moral superiority over Donald Trump. I have a long and well-known public and private record for which I will have to answer at the final judgment, and I repose my hope in the promise of mercy and the moderation of age. I challenge the nominee to set the example for what our country can and should represent.”
Mr McCain’s family has also been critical of Mr Trump. His daughter Meghan McCain said on Twitter on Saturday: “I would ask what kind of barbarian would attack the parents of a fallen soldier, but oh yeah it’s the same person who attacks POWs.”
In a post on Medium under the headline, “For this Republican, Never Trump means ‘I’m With Her,’” his granddaughter Caroline went further, saying Mr Trump, “lacks the temperament and the wisdom to navigate our ever-increasingly dangerous world. “Policy decisions aside, being president of the United States requires a steady hand and never more so than now,” she wrote. “A competent commander-in-chief must respond to threats to the Republic, but Mr Trump only responds to threats to his ego.”
John McCain has also been a vocal proponent of US military aid in Ukraine and was almost certainly rankled by Mr Trump’s comment over the weekend suggesting that Russian president Vladimir Putin was not involved in military moves into the area in spite of the fact that he seized the country’s Crimean Peninsula.
NYT