Jimmy McCain, the son of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), condemned former President Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery as a “violation” and said he would vote for Vice President Harris.
In an interview with CNNThe younger McCain said he changed his voter registration from independent to Democrat a few weeks ago and plans to vote for Harris in November. He also told CNN he would “get involved in any way I can” to help Harris get elected.
Jimmy McCain, who served 17 years in the military and is an intelligence officer, said he was angry about Trump’s behavior at the cemetery last week, adding that “it was a violation.”
“I’m just stunned,” he told CNN. “These men and women who are lying on the ground have no choice” about being featured in a political ad.
“I think anyone who has spent any length of time in the military understands that it’s not about you. It’s about those people who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country,” he added.
Trump visited the cemetery to commemorate the anniversary of the 2021 Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members. Trump said family members of those killed had asked him to visit and take photos with them, but he has been criticized for using the graves as a backdrop for his campaign. A confrontation reportedly occurred when cemetery staffers tried to prevent Trump’s team from photographing and filming a solemn area of the cemetery reserved for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Federal law prohibits political or election activists from visiting the cemetery, and the Army said last week that an employee was pushed aside by the Trump team while trying to enforce rules on the cemetery grounds.
John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, endorsed Biden in 2020. John McCain and Biden were close friends from their time in the Senate.
John McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain is a Trump critic but did not support Harris and was indicted on the social platform X that she won’t do it.
“Please stop trying to turn me into a progressive. It’s a fever dream,” she wrote last week. “I’ve been a conservative forever, for generations.”
Trump has attacked John McCain on numerous occasions, including publicly in 2015, when he said he was not a war hero because he had been captured. The senator, who died in 2018, was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than five years.
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