Conservative commentator Meghan McCain slammed President Biden for his reported remarks about Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), an Army veteran who received a Bronze Star, in a recent back-and-forth.
McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who vocally criticized former President Trump’s past attacks against her father, wrote Wednesday on social platform X that “[d]isrespecting veterans – no matter which President does it, is disgusting and unpatriotic.”
“I hope democrats will call Biden out as vociferously as they have before when [former President] Trump did it,” she wrote.
McCain’s comments came in response to a Tuesday report from Puck news detailing a back-and-forth between Crow and Biden during a call the president held Saturday with moderate congressional Democrats.
The call centered on the lawmakers’ worries about Biden not being able to secure a second term and how that might affect their own reelection bids, amid a broader push from Democrats for Biden to drop out of the White House race.
A source previously described the call to The Hill as “tense” and said the most notable moment was the exchange between Biden and Crow, which the source described as “hard to watch.”
“You saw what happened recently in terms of the meeting we had with NATO. I put NATO together,” Biden said on the call after Crow asked about national security, Puck news reported, citing video it reviewed. “Name me a foreign leader who thinks I’m not the most effective leader in the world on foreign policy. Tell me! Tell me who the hell that is! Tell me who put NATO back together! Tell me who enlarged NATO, tell me who did the Pacific basin!
“Tell me who did something that you’ve never done with your Bronze Star like my son—and I’m proud of your leadership, but guess what, what’s happening, we’ve got Korea and Japan working together, I put [AUKUS] together, anyway! … Things are in chaos, and I’m bringing some order to it. And again, find me a world leader who’s an ally of ours who doesn’t think I’m the most respected person they’ve ever—”
“It’s not breaking through, Mr. President … to our voters,” Crow interjected, according to Puck news.
Crow received a Bronze Star for his combat actions after leading a paratrooper platoon in the invasion of Iraq. Biden’s oldest son Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, was in the Delaware Army National Guard and received a Bronze Star for his own service in Iraq.
Biden has faced intense political headwinds in the wake of his rough debate performance last month that raised questions about his age, mental fitness and ability to win the White House again in the fall. Multiple Democrats in both chambers of Congress have called on the president to step out of the presidential race following the debate.
The Hill has reached out to the Biden campaign and the White House for comment.