Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is getting behind the push to name the new NATO headquarters in Brussels after John McCain.
Rubio said Thursday there was “no greater” supporter of the Atlantic alliance than the late Arizona Republican and Senate Armed Services chairman, and that he is drafting a Senate resolution in support of placing his name on the billion-dollar facility.
“As McCain loved to say when asked why he held a certain position ‘it is the right thing to do,’” Rubio tweeted.
The idea was first floated overseas by U.S. allies this week. A member of the British parliament and three former NATO secretaries general asked the current leader of the alliance, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, to approve it.
“Few things symbolize this alliance, and the enduring benefits of American global leadership, more vividly than the life and work of John McCain. Despite his being a U.S. senator, across Europe we all felt that John McCain III was one of our own,” according a statement by the former NATO leaders posted by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who was the 12th secretary general.
[Also read: Russell Senate building renamed for John McCain in Google Maps]
NATO said the request will be “considered carefully” by Stoltenberg, its current leader, according to CNBC.
“The secretary general has tremendous respect for Sen. John McCain,” a NATO spokeswoman told the network on Wednesday.
McCain, who is scheduled to be buried in Annapolis, Md., on Sunday, was a fierce defender of the alliance and butted heads with President Trump, who had questioned its relevance and criticized member states for not spending enough on defense.
In July, the senator issued a fiery rebuke to the president following a fractious NATO summit meeting where Trump hammered allies over relying too much on U.S. military might.
“President Trump’s performance at the NATO summit in Brussels was disappointing, yet ultimately unsurprising. There is little use in parsing the president’s misstatements and bluster, except to say that they are the words of one man,” McCain said in the statement. “Americans, and their Congress, still believe in the transatlantic alliance and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and it is clear that our allies still believe in us as well.”
