A TRUE WAR HERO IS DISRESPECTED BY THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT

…John McCain Lying in State in the Capital

The president can’t stop lying, even when addressing a deceased American war hero

Even though my father was a “Dyed in the Wool” FDR Democrat, he was a very big fan of a couple of Republicans.  Having been in the Navy in World War II, and drafted into the Army during the Korean conflict, he once said that, “If there were more Americans like John McCain, and Bob Dole, the wars would have been much shorter.”

When McCain was running for President against the eventual winner, Barack Obama, I doubt that if my father were alive that he would have voted for McCain.  He was that much of a Democrat, through and through.  But if McCain had won and my dad were alive, I’m sure he would have respected McCain as America’s leader.

I am very glad that my dad is not alive for being an American with the current resident in the White House.  He would have gone crazy over the disrespect that Trump has shown toward all Americans, and toward a true American war hero such as John McCain.

Based on what Trump had said this week when he again attacked the late senator McCain, he did so even as there was a growing number of Republican senators that have risen to McCain’s defense.  These senators were calling McCain a true war hero and a patriot.  But none of those Republicans had the “cojones” to criticize the president directly.

For a deceased war hero that cannot defend himself, it was totally disgusting when Trump said: , “I endorsed him at his request, and I gave him the kind of funeral he wanted, which as president I had to approve.”

“I don’t care about this,” Trump continued. “I didn’t get a thank you. That’s okay. We sent him on the way. But I wasn’t a fan of John McCain.”

Even an idiot like our current president knows that if there had not been the proper send-off of this war hero, Trump would have been lambasted, even by his own Fox Network.

By the way, US Presidents don’t “approve” the funerals of members of Congress.  To lie in state, one needs the approval of Congress, not the president.  The funeral itself would have been approved by the Washington National Cathedral.  Yes, Trump did approve the military transportation of McCain’s remains from Arizona to Washington.  But even if Trump hadn’t approved that part, there are others that could have made it happen.

Trump’s latest outburst about the deceased senator really got under the skin of Senator Johnny Isakson.  This Georgia Republican called it “unthinkable” last year when the White House lowered its flag to recognize the death of McCain on a Saturday, then raised it again by Monday.  Trump reject his staff’s suggestions and he refused to follow the tradition of leaving the flag at half-staff until the senator was laid to rest. 

Isakson said that moment, and others from this poor example of a US President are fitting into a troubling pattern.  After an escalation of bitter words from the president this week, this senator took to the airwaves in a rare occurrence for his party: A stinging rebuke of President Trump.

“It’s deplorable what he said,” Isakson said on Georgia Public Broadcasting, as he decried any and all public criticism of McCain.  McCain was a former Navy pilot who spent years in brutal captivity in Vietnam. “There aren’t Democratic casualties or Republican casualties on the battlefield.”

These comments followed an interview with the Bulwark, a conservative news website, in which he said, “I just want to lay it on the line, that the country deserves better, the McCain family deserves better. I don’t care if he’s president of United States, owns all the real estate in New York or is building the greatest immigration system in the world. Nothing is more important than the integrity of the country and those who fought and risked their lives for all of us.”

What wasn’t said that should have been said was that Donald Trump was declared 4-F, and did not go to Vietnam because of a so called, “bone Spur”.  A problem that Trump can’t even remember which of his heels supposedly had the “spur”…?  Trump even agrees that by some miracle, the so-called “spur” had disappeared.

Meghan McCain, a co-host of ABC’s “The View,” blasted Trump and defended her father on Wednesday.

Her father “would think it was hilarious that our president was so jealous of him that McCain was dominating the news cycle in death,” she said.  As Meghan said, “My father was a great man, the president will never be a great man.”

Trump’s attacks have also appeared to unleash nasty trolls targeting the McCain family.  Soon after the president’s Oval Office remarks, Cindy McCain posted a profanity-laced message she received on Facebook.

A woman called John McCain “traitorous” and celebrated his death.  An obvious MAGA fan.

“I want to make sure all of you could see how kind and loving a stranger can be,” Cindy McCain wrote on Twitter, referring to the Trump fan.

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) rallied to McCain’s defense saying on Twitter:  “I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God.”

Senator Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican appointed to McCain’s former seat, also defended the former senator.

“Everyone should give him and his family the respect, admiration, and peace they deserve,” she wrote on Twitter.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a Trump ally, praised McCain in a tweet, but he did not address the president’s attacks against him.

Isakson, is also the Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, usually a supporter of Trump, but he often extends more criticisms of the president than many Republican lawmakers.

After last year’s controversy over the flag raising, lowering and re-raising, Isakson took to the Senate floor to blast the insult to McCain, although he did not single out the president in his remarks.

“Anybody who in any way tarnishes the reputation of John McCain deserves a whipping because most of those who would do the wrong thing about John McCain didn’t have the guts to do the right thing when it was their turn,” Isakson said.  (Was this a direct shot at the draft-dodger Trump?)

The focus has since narrowed to Trump.  Isakson watched Trump’s Tuesday remarks and their impact.

“These kids are out there listening to the president of the United States talk that way about the most decorated senator in history who is dead, it just sets the worst tone possible,” he told the Bulwark.

Trump keeps going after McCain because he says, “He [McCain] voted against repealing and replacement of Obamacare.”

The truth is, the reason that McCain voted against getting rid of Obamacare is that there was no “Replacement” for Obamacare from the GOP.  A vote to get rid of Obamacare would have taken health care away from millions, with nothing there to replace it.  Trump keeps lying when he says McCain should have voted to get rid of it, and that there would be “Great Health Care to replace it.”  That’s all just more B.S. from the president!

This is just more examples of why this man should not be our president.

Copyright G. Ater 2019