Dying John McCain Relieved He Had Enough 'Self-Respect' Not To Kiss Trump's 'Ass': Book
The late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) confided shortly before his death from cancer that he had always hoped he’d have “enough self-respect not to kiss [Donald Trump’s] ass” like some of his Republican colleagues were doing, according to an upcoming book.
“It’s just so over-the-top with this guy,” McCain told The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich in late 2017, according to the journalist’s book, which will be out Tuesday, “Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump’s Washington and the Price of Submission.”
“The Russia stuff, the lies, the bullying, the ignorance, the bullshit,” McCain recounted, referring to Trump, according to excerpts of the book published in Monday’s Business Insider.
“Look, I know I’m not going to be here much longer. But I’d like to think that even if that weren’t the case, I would have enough self-respect not to kiss his ass,” he added. McCain died Aug. 25, 2018, a few months after the men talked.
McCain said that he understood why so many Republicans supported Trump — to be reelected — and were too frightened to defy him and risk the consequences, Leibovich noted in an article in The Atlantic last week based on the book. But many went too far, said McCain, who ran for the presidency in 2008 but lost to Barack Obama.
“Republicans who could shape opinion just keep sucking up to the guy,” he told Leibovich, according to The Atlantic article.
McCain didn’t name specific Republicans he considered particularly obsequious to Trump, but he sniped at Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for his tiresome compliments about Trump’s golf game, according to the article.
Trump viciously lashed out at McCain in 2015 during his first campaign, saying the senator was not a war hero, even though McCain was imprisoned for nearly six years in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” after his plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. “I like people who weren’t captured,” sniped Trump, who dodged military service by claiming he had bone spurs.
McCain later told Leibovich he understood other reasons why so many of his colleagues were “so terrified of getting on the wrong side of the president.”
“They don’t want to get the shit kicked out of them by [Rush] Limbaugh, [Fox News’ Sean] Hannity, the tweets, all that,” McCain said. “It’s no fun. I get it. Trump can cost them their jobs, and they like their jobs. I get that, too. Every elected official makes certain calculations.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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