Flashback: Donald Trump & MAGA's reaction when John McCain died

[Wiz Imp]

https://www.voanews.com/a/mccain-tributes/4547074.html

Since his death, world leaders and McCain's former colleagues in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, have shared their favorite memories of McCain, and extolled his status as a senior statesman on the world stage. They have remembered his military service as a naval aviator, especially his valor in enduring beatings and torture during 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war at the hands of North Vietnamese captors at the height of the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

But U.S. President Donald Trump, who frequently engaged in political taunts with McCain and three years ago said McCain was only deemed a hero because he was captured as a POW, was criticized after his initial reactions to McCain's death only expressed condolences to his family and didn't mention his military service or political career.

The White House, according to a Washington Post report Monday, prepared a statement extolling McCain's life and calling him a hero, but Trump rejected issuing it.

Flags at the White House were lowered to half-staff over the weekend in McCain's honor, but back at full-staff on Monday. Trump ignored reporters' repeated questions about McCain at White House gatherings on Monday, but late Monday afternoon the flags were lowered again to half-staff.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2018/08/27/mccain-spokesman-rick-davis-trump-reaction-not-focus-john-mccain-family/1113280002/

Denise Rohan, national commander of the American Legion, blasted Trump's snub in a public letter addressed to Trump Monday. She noted McCain survived 5½ years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

"On the behalf of the American Legion’s two million wartime veterans, I strongly urge you to make an appropriate presidential proclamation noting Senator McCain’s death and legacy of service to our nation, and that our nation’s flag be half-staffed through his interment," Rohan wrote

Trump also reportedly rejected sending out a statement praising McCain, opting instead to write a short tweet.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/01/trump-mccain-memorial-response-reaction-806113

As Washington mourned McCain, Trump’s people grew angry. Some even hoped for — but didn’t get — a blistering tweet from the president. And they privately chastised Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, for attending the senator’s memorial service. “@realDonaldTrump ran for @POTUS ONE time and WON,” tweeted Katrina Pierson, an adviser to Trump’s campaign. “Some people will never recover from that.”

On Saturday, Trump’s allies groused about Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s presence at an event that portrayed the president in such a negative light, with one person calling their attendance a “huge mistake.” Another complained that they had been seated too far back in the church.

“It was a very nice gesture by Jared and Ivanka to attend,” said Sam Nunberg. “I find it contemptible that the McCain family couldn’t seat them in a better, more respectable section.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bob-schieffer-on-trumps-response-to-mccains-death-this-was-making-a-mockery-of-one-of-our-most-solemn-tributes/

Former "Face the Nation" moderator Bob Schieffer is weighing in on the White House's decision to raise the American flag from half-staff just two days after the death of Sen. John McCain.

The flag had been lowered to half-staff Sunday but then raised again Monday morning, even as the nation continued to mourn McCain's death. Late Monday, the flag was lowered once again, and President Trump issued a statement saying he respected McCain's "service to our country."

"To me, this was making a mockery of one of our most solemn tributes to our finest people," Schieffer told CBS News' Norah O'Donnell on Monday's "CBS Evening News." "I've never seen in all my years in Washington this kind of thing, where the American Legion has to write the president and demand they lower the flag to half-staff, where both Senate leaders asked that he lower the flag to half-staff. How does this come about? I don't know."

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/20/politics/john-mccain-thank-you-funeral-donald-trump

President Donald Trump complained Wednesday that he didn’t receive a thank you for approving the funeral the late Sen. John McCain wanted, marking his latest grievance in his recent onslaught against the Arizona Republican.
“I endorsed him at his request, and I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as President I had to approve. I don’t care about this. I didn’t get thank you. That’s OK. We sent him on the way. But I wasn’t a fan of John McCain,” Trump said during a speech Wednesday at a tank factory in Lima, Ohio.

Last weekend, Trump attacked McCain in several tweets that targeted his ties to the controversial Russia dossier and his vote against repealing Obamacare. He also referred to McCain as being “last in his class” at the US Naval Academy.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/19/politics/cindy-mccain-hateful-message-stranger/index.html

Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain, posted a hateful message she received from a stranger the same day President Donald Trump disparaged her late husband.

McCain posted a photo of the private message on Twitter and wrote, “I want to make sure all of you could see how kind and loving a stranger can be. I’m posting her note for her family and friends could see.”

The message said the sender was “glad” the late Arizona Republican is dead, and called him a “traitorous piece of warmongering s***.” The message also attacked her daughter, Meghan McCain, criticizing her appearance and saying she hopes she “chokes to death.”