Meghan McCain: ‘Hard for me to watch’ Palin endorse Trump

Meghan McCain says it was difficult to watch Sarah Palin endorse Donald Trump for president after the GOP front-runner’s controversial comments about her father’s military service.

“It is hard for me to watch her endorse Donald Trump after what Donald Trump said about my father’s service,” McCain said on Fox Business Network on Wednesday.

“Just on a personal level. It’s hard for me to differentiate personal and politics in a situation like this.”

{mosads}In July, Trump’s feud with Meghan McCain’s father, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), blew up after the real estate mogul said the Arizona senator wasn’t a war hero. McCain was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”

On Tuesday, Palin, a former Alaska governor and McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election, threw her support behind Trump at a rally in Iowa.

The endorsement was seen as a boost to Trump, who is locked in a close race with rival candidate Ted Cruz in Iowa, with less than two weeks until the state’s caucuses.

Meghan McCain, who is a Fox News contributor, said she hasn’t spoken with Palin since her father’s defeat in 2008.

She said she was surprised Palin backed Trump over Cruz. Palin endorsed Cruz in his 2012 Senate bid.

“I was shocked simply because I know of her relationship with Ted Cruz. She’s debatably responsible for his political career,” McCain said.

She also chided Palin for “pandering” and distancing herself from conservative values.

“I wish I just saw this a little less like pandering. And doing something that’s popular instead of sticking with your integrity and the kind of conservative beliefs that she has espoused for so long.”

Trump and Cruz are neck and neck in Iowa polls, with the businessman leading the Texas senator by 1 point in the RealClearPolitics average.