Meghan McCain told Sen. Amy Klobuchar to leave her father, the late Sen. John McCain, “out of presidential politics” after the Democratic presidential candidate appeared to compare President Trump to authoritarian leaders.
During a campaign stop in Iowa this weekend, Klobuchar (D-Minn.) shared an anecdote about how the former Arizona senator had recited names of dictators to her during Trump’s inauguration.
“The arc that we are on, this arc of justice, started the day after that dark inauguration,” said Klobuchar, adding that she sat between fellow 2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and John McCain, according to NBC News.
“The day when I sat on that stage between Bernie and John McCain, and John McCain kept reciting to me names of dictators during that speech, because he knew more than any of us what we were facing as a nation. He understood it. He knew because he knew this man more than any of us did,” she said.
On Monday, the co-host of “The View” tweeted that Klobuchar should not bring up her dad during political speeches.
“On behalf of the entire McCain family (Senator Klobuchar), please be respectful to all of us and leave my father’s legacy and memory out of presidential politics,” she wrote.
Klobuchar’s campaign responded to her request Monday night by stressing the senator’s respect for the McCain family but did not directly say whether she would continue to share the story.
“Senator Klobuchar had a long-time friendship with Senator McCain, she has defended him against President Trump’s attacks in the past, and she has deep respect for his family,” campaign spokesman Tim Hogan said in a statement.
“While she was simply sharing a memory, she continues to believe that the best stories about Senator McCain are not about the views he had about President Trump: They are about McCain’s own valor and heroism,” he added.
John McCain — who died of brain cancer at age 81 last year — was one of the president’s harshest critics.
In 2016, he withdrew his endorsement of the Republican nominee, citing “offensive and demeaning comments” that Trump made about groping women in the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape.
McCain also voted to oppose GOP efforts to overhaul the Affordable Care Act.
In 2015, Trump declared that McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent several years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was “not a war hero.”
“I like people that weren’t captured,” Trump said at the time.
