John McCain’s Son Calls Donald Trump’s Arlington National Cemetery Visit A ‘Violation’ | EUROtoday

Jimmy McCain, the son of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), has known as out Donald Trump for utilizing his current Arlington National Cemetery go to to marketing campaign — one thing that’s in violation of the navy cemetery’s guidelines and has been on the middle of a serious controversy over the previous week.

According to a Tuesday report from CNN, Jimmy McCain mentioned the 2024 presidential candidate’s conduct on the Virginia website “just blows me away.”

“These men and women that are laying in the ground there have no choice” of whether or not to take part in a political marketing campaign, mentioned McCain, who has served within the navy for 17 years.

The controversy surrounding Trump’s Aug. 26 go to unfolded after NPR reported that a few of his aides bought right into a verbal and bodily altercation with a cemetery worker, who’d tried to cease the marketing campaign from taking photographs or movies among the many just lately buried veterans. Trump’s camp has denied any altercation, described the cemetery worker as “suffering from a mental health episode” and acknowledged that it was allowed a photographer in the course of the go to.

Two days after the incident, Trump posted a TikTok video of his cemetery go to with clear political intent. The footage confirmed the GOP nominee strolling amongst graves as audio performed of him denouncing Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential administration.

“It was a violation,” McCain mentioned of Trump posing close to gravestones, telling CNN that he registered as a Democrat weeks in the past. “That mother, that sister, those families, see that — and it’s a painful experience.”

The debacle confirmed that Trump doesn’t perceive what it means to serve one’s nation, advised McCain, who has family members buried on the Virginia cemetery.

“I just think that for anyone who’s done a lot of time in their uniform, they just understand that inherently — that it’s not about you there. It’s about these people who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their country,” he mentioned.

“Many of these men and women, who served their country, chose to do something greater than themselves,” he added. “They woke up one morning, they signed on the dotted line, they put their right hand up, and they chose to serve their country. And that’s an experience that Donald Trump has not had. And I think that might be something that he thinks about a lot.”

Trump denied utilizing the cemetery go to to marketing campaign throughout a rally Friday, saying he was merely honoring a Gold Star household’s request for a photograph with him.

“I don’t need publicity. I get a lot of publicity,” he mentioned. “I would like to get a lot less publicity. I would pay to get — I’m the only guy who would hire a public relations agent to get less publicity. Most hire to get publicity.”

In 2015, a month after launching what quickly turned a profitable marketing campaign for the White House, Trump made stunning feedback about John McCain’s navy profession and time as a prisoner of warfare in Vietnam.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump mentioned on the time. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK? I hate to tell you.”

He has by no means apologized for these remarks, which have been broadly condemned throughout the Republican Party.

Members of the McCain household have since spoken out in opposition to Trump, however Jimmy McCain is the primary to publicly go away the GOP. He instructed CNN that he’s going to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November and “would get involved in any way I could” to assist her marketing campaign.