WHITE HOUSE TRIES TO HIDE THE USS JOHN S. McCAIN

…Tarp hiding the name of the USS JOHN S. McCAIN

John McCain’s daughter calls the president “a child”, threatened by her deceased war hero father.

President Trump said that whomever directed the US Navy in Japan to obscure the warship name on the USS John S. McCain, while Trump was visiting the Japan harbor was, “well meaning”.  However, he said that he had nothing to do with this action. In addition, when the tarp was removed from covering the ship’s name, someone in the navy had a barge moved to keep any press from filming the name on the back of the ship. 

“I don’t know what happened. I was not involved. I would not have done that,” Trump told reporters when asked about reports that someone at the White House had asked the Navy to obscure the warship.

Trump, however, did suggest that his disdain for the late senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) is well-known, and that it was understandable that someone would try to keep a warship named for McCain from his view.

“I was not a big fan of John McCain in any shape or form,” Trump said. “Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn’t like him, okay? And they were well-meaning.”

You know, I really don’t understand why any Republican that today has their medical healthcare coverage through the ACA can support this president.  And they should be happy that John McCain’s vote was personally responsible for the ACA still being intact, (The ACA is also known as Obamacare).

Trump went on to recount the differences he had with McCain, including that vote against the Republican health-care bill that would have removed health care from millions of Americans.  McCain has been a frequent target of the president’s public statements.  That is even after the senator’s death in August from brain cancer at age 81.  It’s disgusting that the president still goes after the dead American war hero.

“I was never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be.” Trump again lashed out at the late senator from the Oval Office.

As usually being in support of the Democrats, I was obviously was many times not in support of the late senator.  But I always respected his military history, and his years of being a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam.  McCain was a true American patriot, as compared to our “fake bone-spur president”.

As expected, hours later, Trump totally discounted the whole Navy story, tweeting: “The Navy put out a disclaimer on the McCain story. Looks like the story was an exaggeration, or even Fake News - but why not, everything else is!”   This all a Trump falsehood.

The truth is that there was not a “Navy disclaimer”.  That’s a Trump lie.   Instead, a senior White House official has confirmed that the person who issued the directive did not want the warship with the McCain name seen in any photographs during Trump’s visit. The official knew how Trump always reviews any news videos of himself, but he agreed that the president was not involved in the planning.  However, he said that the request was made to keep Trump from becoming too upset.

Before McCain died, the Navy had decided to add his name to the ship. The destroyer is stationed in Japan, where it is being currently repaired after a crash with a fatality back in 2017.

But the obscuring of the ship’s name was not the only actions of the US Navy.

The crew of the USS McCain also was not invited to an event during Trump’s visit that occurred on the USS Wasp.  A Navy official said it was because the USS McCain’s crew “just happened to be released from duty for the long holiday weekend”, along with sailors from another ship, the USS Stethem.

A senior Navy official confirmed that he was aware that someone at the White House sent a message to service officials in the Pacific requesting that the USS John McCain be kept out of the pictures while the president was there. That led to photographs taken Friday of the above tarp obscuring the ship’s McCain name.

When senior Navy officials grasped what was happening, they directed Navy personnel who were present to stop the obscuring, the senior official said.  That’s how the picture of the tarp being removed over the ship’s name was released.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the White House directive.

The US Navy did go to great lengths to shield Trump from seeing the USS John S. McCain.  Officials admitted that they first covered the name with a tarp, then used the barge to block the name and that they gave the sailors on the ship the day off, the Journal reported. 

A Navy official told The Washington Post that the barge was moved before the event occurred involving Trump,  but that giving the sailors the day off also kept the president from seeing the sailors with their Navy hats saying: “USS John S. McCain”.

A WSJ reported also asked: “What happened to the idea of Naming NATO Headquarters after John McCain?”  A question that so far has gone unanswered.

  

However, the WSJ did report that acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan did know of the White House’s concerns and he approved military officials’ efforts to obscure the ship’s name.

But the acting secretary Shanahan, when speaking to reporters in Indonesia, denied that account.

“What I read this morning was the first I heard about it,” he said.

The reports of the White House directive brought on a tweet from Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late senator who is a co-host on the ABC program “The View.”

She called Trump “A child who will always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dad’s incredible life.”

Meghan McCain returned to Twitter, where she said that she was present as a child when her mother christened the warship in Maine.

“It was originally named after my great grandfather and grandfather (both famous admirals in the navy) and my father’s name was added as namesake after he died. Get a life,” she wrote to Trump.

The episode also drew considerable fire from Democrats, including the presidential candidate, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who served in Afghanistan as a Navy Reserve intelligence officer.  “This is not a show,” Buttigieg wrote on Twitter. “Our military is not a prop for the president. Ships and sailors are not to be toyed with for the benefit of a fragile president’s ego.”

Former vice president Joe Biden also was asked about the episode as he attended a Memorial Day service in New Castle, Del.  “John McCain was a war hero, should be treated as a war hero,” Biden said. “Anything less than that is beneath anyone who doesn’t treat him that way.”

Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee that will hold confirmation hearings for Mr. Shanahan, said in a statement Thursday that she was “appalled to hear of the allegations surrounding the USS John S. McCain.”

“There needs to be a full investigation into who ordered it and what occurred. John McCain’s legacy deserves nothing but honor and respect from everyone,” said McSally, who was appointed to the Senate and faces an election next year.

And this is just more examples of why Donald Trump is bringing down the basic overall reputation of our great nation.

Copyright G. Ater 2019.