President Trump directed White House aides to shelve a heartfelt statement commemorating the life of Sen. John McCain after the Arizona Republican died Saturday, opting instead to send a brief condolence tweet, according to a report.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, chief of staff John Kelly, and other senior staffers, pushed for an official statement that hailed McCain a “hero,” praised his military service, and touted his accomplishments as a six-term senator, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
But Trump advised aides to put the prepared statements aside after news broke McCain, 81, had died following his yearlong battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Instead, Trump tweeted: “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!”
The decision described in the report caps an adversarial relationship Trump had with the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.
Trump was been widely condemned for belittling McCain’s five years as a Vietnam prisoner of war, saying he preferred people who “weren’t captured” during the 2016 presidential campaign. The pair also clashed over policy, with McCain casting a vote in 2017 that helped doom GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare. McCain also castigated Trump for his joint Helsinki press conference in July with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
McCain’s life and legacy will be marked this week in a slew of events hosted in his home state of Arizona and in the nation’s capital. Trump will reportedly not be invited to McCain’s funeral on Saturday at the Washington National Cathedral, nor whether he will attend a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda where the longtime senator will lay in state.
