Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci on Thursday blasted President Trump for his recent attacks on the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), calling the president’s comments “stupid” and “socially unnatural.”
“He’s hitting something that is socially unnatural. And so what is that? You’re attacking somebody that died seven months ago,” Scaramucci said in an appearance on CNN’s “New Day.”
“I think it’s stupid. I’m being very declarative here. I think it’s stupid,” the former White House staffer continued.
{mosads}Trump sent numerous tweets last weekend attacking McCain, who died of brain cancer last August, and continued targeting the longtime senator this week, telling reporters Tuesday he was “never a fan of John McCain” and lamenting in a speech in Ohio on Wednesday that he “didn’t get a thank you” for McCain’s funeral.
Scaramucci cautioned that continuing to attack McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, could potentially alienate veterans who support Trump.
Scaramucci speculated that some Republicans have praised McCain rather than directly criticized Trump because they “don’t want to get in the Twitter crosshairs” of the president.
Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), who was a close friend of McCain’s, on Wednesday said that the president’s attacks “hurt him more than they hurt the legacy of Sen. McCain.”
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, spoke out on the remarks more forcefully, calling them “deplorable” in a radio interview Wednesday.
McCain’s daughter Meghan has also frequently hit back against Trump’s attacks on her father, saying Wednesday on “The View” that McCain “would think it was so hilarious that our president was so jealous of him that he was dominating the news cycle in death.”