Regardless of your political affiliation, it’s hard not to agree that the 2016 presidential election proved to be a chaotic turning point for American politics.
It was also a time that saw a great deal of friction within the Republican party as some prominent Republicans such as George H.W. Bush and John McCain made their aversions to President Donald Trump very clear. Although McCain chose to support neither Trump nor Clinton in 2016, both Bush and George W. Bush went as far as to cross the aisle and vote for Clinton.
And McCain’s widow has formally announced that she plans to make a similar decision.
On the evening of September 22, Cindy McCain announced her endorsement for Joe Biden on Twitter.
As she tweeted out, “My husband John lived by a code: country first. We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost. There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is Joe Biden.”
It’s hard to say that this decision comes out of nowhere as the McCain family has had a strained-at-best relationship with Trump.
As The Guardian reported , this likely stems from the following statement Trump made about McCain’s military service: “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured … He lost and let us down. I’ve never liked him as much after that. I don’t like losers.”
This was a reference to the fact that McCain was held as a prisoner of war and tortured in North Vietnam for five years.
But for Cindy McCain, the last straw concerned the allegations that Trump referred to fallen American soldiers as “losers” and “suckers.”
She went on to say that she doesn’t agree with Biden on certain issues and recalls arguments he had with her husband throughout their 30-year frienship, but maintained that Biden is “a good and honest man.”
As CBS News reported , she also saw the fact that Biden “knows what it is like to send a child off to fight” as an important part of why she believes he should be the military’s commander-in-chief.
She also said he has “great empathy for people in this country who are struggling, not just with the Covid-19 crisis but all along the way.”
With her endorsement, McCain hopes to persuade undecided suburban women on which way to vote.
As The Guardian reported , she stated her belief that it is now braver for Republicans to cross the aisle and vote for Biden rather than support Trump.
As she put it, “Joe Biden is the better man.”
By Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted out the response you can see here to McCain’s statements.
As The Guardian reported , McCain was asked on ABC’s Good Morning America whether she had any comment in response to this tweet and she said she did not.
h/t: The Guardian
