1st Lt. Jimmy McCain, the son of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) slammed Donald Trump’s controversial appearance at Arlington National Cemetery last week and said he plans to support Kamala Harris for president in November.
McCain, the youngest son of the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, told CNN on Tuesday that he switched his party affiliation to Democrat last week and not only plans to vote for Harris this November, but vowed to “get involved in any way I could” to help get her elected.
McCain in the first member of the high profile conservative family to publicly announce he is leaving the Republican Party. Though his mother Cindy McCain and sister Meghan McCain endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 they remain Republicans.
McCain, who now serves as an intelligence officer in the 158th Infantry Regiment, told CNN that he chose to speak out about his politics now because of Trump’s recent controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery.
“It just blows me away,” he said. “These men and women that are laying in the ground there have no choice” of whether to be a backdrop for a political campaign, he said.
“I just think that for anyone who’s done a lot of time in their uniform, they just understand that inherently — that it’s not about you there,” McCain added. “It’s about these people who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their country.”
McCain also said that Trump and his campaign’s response to the backlash shows the former president’s insecurity about his own lack of military service.
“Many of these men and women, who served their country, chose to do something greater than themselves,” McCain said. “They woke up one morning, they signed on the dotted line, they put their right hand up, and they chose to serve their country. And that’s an experience that Donald Trump has not had. And I think that might be something that he thinks about a lot.”
Trump has been criticized for posing for photos in Section 60 of the cemetery, one of the most hallowed areas in Arlington National Cemetery where recent US casualties are buried and where the taking of photos and videos are prohibited.
The Army said last week that an Arlington National Cemetery official was trying to enforce rules prohibiting political activities on cemetery grounds when they were “abruptly pushed aside” by members of Trump’s campaign.
McCain said he thought about the three service members who were killed in an air strike on the small US base on the Jordan-Syria border, just weeks before he arrived at the base, when he saw the photo of Trump.
“It was a violation,” he said. “That mother, that sister, those families, see that — and it’s a painful experience.”
