CNN’s Dana Bash said President Trump’s possible loss in Arizona would be “John McCain’s last laugh,” with the network’s chief political correspondent saying the outcome would be poetic, given the president’s criticism of the late Republican senator.
“Ultimately, John McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, beloved and respected in Arizona, endorsed [Democratic presidential nominee Joe] Biden,” noted anchor Jake Tapper on Wednesday. “There are many people in the White House right now tearing their hair watching Arizona returns right now saying: ‘I told you not to do that!’ ”
“You read my mind,” Bash concurred. “I was sitting here thinking [about] Arizona and thinking [about] John McCain and Cindy McCain. And now [former Republican Arizona Sen.] Jeff Flake endorsed Joe Biden, but much more of the McCain legacy.”
“I am sure you are talking to people who are close to John McCain, that it is John McCain’s last laugh, if, in fact, his state, his beloved adopted state goes for Joe Biden, his old friend who spoke at his funeral, eulogized him,” she concluded. “Can you imagine the poetry of that if it happens?”
Trump first attacked McCain during the 2016 primary season.
“He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said of the Arizona senator.
McCain was shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam War in 1967 and held as a prisoner of war for more than five years. He refused early release, even after being tortured and beaten.
McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, died in August 2018 after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He requested before his death that Trump — who also attacked McCain for his surprise vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act in 2017 — not attend his funeral.
“All politics is personal. It’s all about trust. I trusted John with my life, I would, and I think he would trust me with his,” Biden said during his eulogy of McCain. “Character is destiny. John had character.”
The Associated Press and Fox News have declared Biden the winner in Arizona, but other networks have not yet called the state.
Trump campaign officials say the president will win Arizona as votes continue to be counted in the Phoenix area.