GOP senators slam Trump after his days-long tirade against John McCain
- President Trump went after the late Arizona Sen. John McCain again this week.
- Republicans have grown frustrated with Trump's repeated attacks on McCain, a war hero they revered.
- On the Democratic side, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has proposed renaming a Senate office building after McCain.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump does not like John McCain, the longtime senator from Arizona, 2008 Republican presidential nominee, and Vietnam war hero. The president has criticized and insulted McCain on and off for years.
Since Trump's ascent to the presidency, his repeated attacks on McCain have perturbed Republicans who revere the now-deceased Vietnam War hero. And amid his latest attack, Trump is facing considerable backlash from Republican lawmakers.
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During a meeting in the Oval Office with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday, a reporter asked Trump why almost a year after McCain's death he was once again raging against him on Twitter.
Trump cited McCain's vote against the Affordable Care Act repeal in 2017, which he characterized as a betrayal.
"And, frankly, had we even known that, I think we would have gotten a vote because we could have gotten somebody else," Trump said "So I think that's disgraceful. Plus, there are other things. I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be."
The comments from Trump were relatively tame when compared to other things he has said about McCain, like that he is not a war hero for being captured in Vietnam. But they still made a handful of Republicans quite angry.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who is often critical of the president, wrote on Twitter his condemnation of Trump's comments.
"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," he wrote.
Republican in Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who rarely criticizes Trump and avoids big headlines in the press, also spoke out against the president for his repeated attacks on McCain.
Isakson told The Bulwark, a Trump-skeptical conservative opinion website, that he intends to excoriate Trump in the same manner he did shortly after McCain's death when the White House did not properly lower their flags to half staff.
"I want to do what I said that day on the floor of the senate," 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."
Isakson is slated to go after Trump during an interview with Georgia Public Broadcasting's "Political Rewind" later on Wednesday.
In addition to Republicans, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced he would be re-introducing his proposal to rename the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill after McCain.