08/14/18
Democratic strategist Estuardo Rodriguez said on Tuesday that President Trump thinks of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as “he who should not be named” after Trump did not mention McCain during a signing ceremony for a defense bill named for the senator.
“‘He who should not be named’ is where the president clearly is with Senator McCain,” Rodriguez, who is a principal at the Raben Group, told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising.”
“This is actually the second bill that has been named after Sen. McCain. The other one was last year, a VA bill, and the president made sure not to mention the senator then either,” he continued.
“You clearly have someone who cannot put public policy, especially as it relates to the military, before his personal issues with the senator,” he said.
Trump did not mention McCain before he signed the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 in upstate New York on Monday.
Trump later mocked McCain, who is battling brain cancer, at a fundraising event.
“ObamaCare, we got rid of the individual mandate, which is the most unpopular aspect,” the president said. “I would’ve gotten rid of everything, but as you know, one of our wonderful senators said ‘thumbs down’ at 2 o’clock in the morning,” he added, referring to McCain’s rejection of one of the Senate’s ObamaCare repeal plans last year.
Trump has a history of feuding with the senator, going back to 2015 when he slammed his status as a POW during the Vietnam War.
“Most Americans consider Senator McCain a war hero,” Rodriguez said. “Yet the president cannot get passed his personal grudge against Senator McCain in that moment, in front of military personnel and the Pentagon to say this the Senator McCain bill.”
— Julia Manchester
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