Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said on Thursday from Arizona that he does not believe former Sen. John McCain would support Vice President Kamala Harris if he were alive and saw the southern border today.
Vance made his remarks after the late senator’s son endorsed Harris earlier this week.
“I do not believe for a second that if John McCain were alive today and he sees what’s going on at the American southern border, that he would support Kamala Harris and all the destruction she has wrought,” Vance said at a rally in Phoenix. “I really don’t believe that.”
McCain, one of Arizona’s most beloved senators and the Republican nominee for president in 2008, died in 2018 from an aggressive form of brain cancer. McCain was a fierce critic of Donald Trump and even requested that the former president not be allowed at his funeral. Trump, president at the time, did not send out a standard eulogizing statement after the late senator’s death.
Earlier this week, McCain’s son Jimmy McCain said he registered as a Democrat and will be voting for Harris in November. Jimmy McCain told CNN, which first reported on his endorsement of Harris, that he was speaking out after Trump campaign staffers were accused of pushing an Army staffer at Arlington National Cemetery. The Army staffer was reportedly trying to prevent the former president’s campaign from campaigning at the cemetery. Trump has denied that there was an incident while the Army stated that the cemetery staffer was “was abruptly pushed aside.”
When a reporter asked Vance about the endorsement, he replied: “Who cares what somebody’s family thinks about a presidential race?” He added that he cares only about what the people of Arizona think about the presidential race.
“John McCain died what, five, six, seven years ago? And the media is turning into a story what John McCain’s family says about Donald Trump,” Vance said. “I don’t know if anybody noticed, but pretty much every single member of Tim Walz’ family came out and endorsed Donald Trump. Is that a bigger story than what John McCain’s son said? I think so.”
The Ohio senator was also asked about his thoughts on McCain’s legacy. Vance said that he never met McCain, but said he suspects he would have loved that McCain “didn’t let their personal grievances get in the way” of serving the country — something the senator said he loves about Trump.
Trump in the past mocked McCain, who was taken prisoner while fighting in the Vietnam War, saying he liked “people who weren’t captured.” He also said he was “never was a fan of John McCain” and “never will be.”
Vance reiterated that he is focused on the voters: “Whatever John McCain’s family thinks, whatever John McCain would have ultimately thought about Kamala Harris’ policies, my goal here is to persuade every single person in this room and every single person in the state of Arizona that their lives will be better if they elect Donald J. Trump.”
Wes Gullett, John McCain’s former state director, said on behalf of the Harris campaign that “John McCain was working for a solution to the border, not just politicizing it.”
Gullett said that McCain would have thought Trump killing the most recent border bill was “malarkey.” He added that the McCain name and legacy matter in Arizona, and that includes Jimmy McCain.
Vance also said that school shootings are a “fact of life” and the U.S. needs to strengthen security after a 14-year-old this week was arrested and charged with shooting and killing four people at a high school in Georgia.
