Jimmy McCain—son of the late former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.—criticized Donald Trump’s controversial appearance at Arlington National Cemetery and said he plans to support Kamala Harris for president in November, CNN reported Tuesday.
Jimmy McCain, son of Sen. John McCain, pauses at his father's casket during ceremonies honoring ... [+]
Jimmy McCain told CNN he recently changed his voter registration from independent to Democratic and is planning to vote for Harris in November, and chose to speak out about his politics now because of Trump’s recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery.
McCain blasted Trump’s visit to the cemetery—which made headlines after one of his staffers reportedly pushed a cemetery worker—saying: “These men and women that are laying in the ground there have no choice” whether they’re a backdrop for a political campaign, CNN reported in a preview of the interview that will air Tuesday.
McCain is the first member of his high-profile, conservative family to publicly leave the Republican Party (his mother Cindy McCain endorsed President Joe Biden over Trump in 2020 but remained a Republican).
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Last week, at an event to honor the 13 Americans who died in the 2021 bombing at the Kabul airport, a Trump staffer reportedly pushed an Arlington National Cemetery worker who was trying to stop the campaign from taking pictures in a restricted area. Trump also received criticism for posting a video to TikTok that criticized the withdrawal from Afghanistan in which names of military members could be seen on headstones. Trump was at the cemetery for a wreath-laying to honor those who died in the bombing, and two of the families of the deceased gave the former president permission to take photos by the gravesites. But the family of at least one other person whose grave was shown in photos and videos did not give permission, The New York Times reported.
Jimmy McCain, who has been in the Marine Corps since he was 17 and is now an intelligence officer in the 158th Infantry Regiment, recently returned from a deployment near the Jordan-Syria border, CNN reported.
John McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain has been an outspoken critic of Trump, but recently hinted she will not support Harris in November. She quote-tweeted a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which someone pleaded with her to endorse the Harris-Walz ticket and said: “Please stop trying to turn me into a progressive. It’s a fever dream. I’m a life long, generational conservative.”
Whether Cindy McCain will endorse Harris. In 2020, when she endorsed Biden, she made no mention of Harris in her statement. Instead, McCain said she was an American before she was a Republican and that there was “only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation.” Once in office, Biden appointed her as the ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
What else Jimmy McCain says in his interview. The full interview will air on CNN at 4 p.m. EDT Tuesday during “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”