Meeting with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, President Trump on Tuesday declared, “I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be.”
I take the opposite view. McCain was a true patriot of the highest order. Electing to follow a grand family tradition of military service, McCain attended the Naval Academy and qualified as a fleet fighter pilot. But his greatest moments of military service wouldn’t come in the skies above North Vietnam, but rather as a prisoner of that brutal regime. Because it was in his stoic resistance to the enemy, and his refusal to accept special benefits as fellow American prisoners suffered, that McCain showed his character. In hell holes like the Hanoi Hilton, a legend was born.
McCain was also a man of great decency. I never met him and I heard that he could sometimes be tough on his Senate staff. Still, I was always struck by his willingness to work across the aisle and forge friendships with his political opponents. As former President George W. Bush eulogized, “He was honorable, always recognizing that his opponents were still patriots and human beings.” In 2019, the ideal of American friendship above furious partisanship is one to be treasured, at least by patriots, that is.
Finally, McCain saw America for what it is: the world’s greatest nation. And why it is that way: its courage and freedom. He drove foreign policy in the best pursuit of that American essence: promoting freedom and justice around the world. I didn’t always agree with McCain’s views, but I always greatly admired him for recognizing the need to stare down despots like Vladimir Putin, and for standing up for his sacred-held beliefs on issues like interrogation. He knew that earth’s better future depended on resolute leaders.
So yes, Trump is entitled to always dislike McCain. I’m entitled to always admire him.
