GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump fired back Thursday in a growing war of words with Sen. John McCain, calling the Arizona Republican a “dummy” who needs to be voted out of office.
“[McCain] should be defeated in the primaries. Graduated last in his class at Annapolis– dummy!,” Trump tweeted Thursday.
{mosads}He targeted McCain, who is up for reelection next year, after the senator criticized Trump’s rhetoric on illegal immigration during an interview with The New Yorker published Thursday.
“This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful,” he said of Trump’s rally against illegal immigration in his state over the weekend. “Because what he did was he fired up the crazies.”
McCain, his party’s presidential nominee in 2008, argued that those at Trump’s rally represent a small portion of Republicans.
But Trump slammed McCain, saying that he “must apologize” to the thousands of people who attended the rally.
The latest exchange follows a veiled shot at Trump from McCain last week, saying that the “circus” surrounding Republican infighting on illegal immigration is hurting the party.
“The circus currently surrounding the debate over illegal immigration sows division within our country and damages the Republican Party,” McCain said in a statement Friday, adding that “if the Republican nominee for president does not support comprehensive immigration reform and border security policy, we have no chance of defeating Hillary Clinton and winning the White House in 2016.”
McCain didn’t mention Trump specifically in that statement, but it followed Trump’s first remarks on immigration, which started the media firestorm.
Trump has said that Mexico is sending “rapists” and other criminals to the United States.
Earlier this week, McCain got his first primary challenger. Kelli Ward announced Tuesday that she would run against him, citing immigration as a top issue for her Senate campaign.
The Trump-McCain spat got the Arizona Republican support from notorious tweeter and former Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), who told Trump: “delete your account.”