Man. The impossible just happened. I thought that I couldn’t possibly hate Donald Trump anymore than I already did, but he proved me wrong. He just said and did something that is so horrifically vile that he managed to amplify my loathing for him — which I would have told you was an impossibility. Trump is doing quite a few speaking engagements in the near future. He’s done two just today in Iowa, in anticipation of the Iowa Caucus on January 15. He’s already vilified Abraham Lincoln, which for the standard bearer of the oft-touted Party of Lincoln, is a bit of a drop. But then he did something which arguably is even worse. He mocked one of the GOP’s presidential candidates, a Viet Nam war hero. He mocked John McCain.
Before you view this, get into focus two things: this is by far not the first or only time he’s mocked McCain. Trump has a real thing for McCain, which nobody has ever understood, stemming from his, “He’s a hero for being shot down. I like heroes who weren’t shot down,” to his madness when the guided-missile destroyer bearing the Arizona senator’s name was requested to be hidden so that it wouldn’t make Trump jealous. Here’s the latest salvo.
I'm not trying to lionize John McCain here, but this shows just how empty Trump's life is, in that to this day he still holds a grudge against John McCain, someone who served his country the way Trump is too afraid to do.
— Sterling (@GreenShades9) January 6, 2024
McCain was tortured after he was captured by the Vietnamese. That’s as simple as it gets. It’s not the stuff of comedy. And if Trump was living 300 years from now, it would still not be the stuff of comedy. The fact that Trump could even open his mouth and say this is yet a new low for him.
This is a new low for Trump and for the GOP, if they allow this, which they assuredly will. If we’ve gotten to the level where we, as a country, don’t respect our war heroes, then who are we? And this is beyond Trump calling military people “losers” and “suckers.” This, in my view, is as bad, if not worse, than Trump calling for General Mark Milley to be “executed.” At least General Milley is here to defend himself and his good name. Senator McCain is not.
I am so sorry you have to endure this madman, Mrs. McCain. I'm a lifelong Democrat but I had great respect for your husband, as many Democrats do. Trump isn't worthy to wipe mud off Senator McCain's boots — and that was said at the 2016 Democratic convention.
— Ursula Faw (@ursulafaw56) January 7, 2024
I hope somebody asks Lindsey Graham about this. I would like to see just how chickenshit Graham has gotten. Graham and McCain were dear friends, and the two of them were also close friends with the Bidens. You know how that went south. I would like to see if Graham is man enough to defend his dear, departed best friend, or if he’s just going to continue to be the lap dog for Trump.
This is a disgrace. Once again, Trump has disgraced this entire nation. And on the anniversary of January 6, no less.
This attacking of McCain is not working out for Kari Lake, one of Trump’s most avid acolytes. I don’t expect that we’ll be hearing a lot from her past 2024. Her next gig, if she’s in the public eye at all, will be on Steve Bannon’s podcast, or possibly she can get a show on Newsmax or OAN. I don’t see Fox News touching her with a 10 foot pole.
Trump revels in being the iconoclast, the perennial bad boy. He’s just a stupid old man with no knowledge of the world, no practical experience of life beyond being in front of a TV camera, no class, and no shame. He doesn’t belong anywhere near the White House, beyond a public tour.
There is no low, too low.
Further proof.
Imbeciles, all of them, and cruel imbeciles too.
Too stupid to see that the word civility is related to the word civilisation.
How is it that the wealthiest, most powerful country to ever exist on this planet has so many people like this in it?
If you find out the answer to that question, please let me know — anytime of the day or night. I would love to hear the answer. Trump represents the underbelly of America. If God forbid he gets elected, we will forever be a banana republic. That will seal the deal. I shudder to think.
I hear your pain and I’m in Australia, how does someone like Donald Trump get into power and more to the point, how the hell do so many people attach themselves to such an imbisil.
I say yes Donald come down to the border and watch them build your beautiful wall.
what a schmuck.
playing his greatest hits for the peanut gallery I see.
John McCain was not only not treated for his injuries during his years in that hell, he could have gotten out early once the Vietcong found out his father was an admiral. He refused because of a code that required those captured before him be released before him. I disagreed with him about many things, but I respected the man’s grit, character, and sense of honor. Trump has NO REDEEMING QUALITIES. He’s an evil, vile creature of privilege, who deserves a good beating on a regular basis. His followers are the same. A nest of vipers! VOTE!!!
That is exactly why a great many Democrats respected the man. He was an honorable man. He didn’t go for Obama’s jugular like he could have, encouraging the “Obama’s an Arab” narrative and mocking his middle name, Hussain.
I think Trump just stepped in it, this time. There are a lot of vets in this country and no vet is going to take this kindly. Not even MAGA vets.
Really? Trump attacked Gold Star families back in 2016 and it didn’t make much of a dent among the “MAGA vets.” As you’ve noted, Trump’s attacked and mocked McCain many times in the past and it didn’t raise much outrage from the “MAGA vets.” Cultists almost never accept the horrible reality about their leaders until they’ve been forcibly deprogrammed.
All the MSM needs to do is simply “report” on what he says, literally.
Instead: crickets.
“Trump, in a campaign speech in Iowa, attacked Biden…”
Geez…
This will go on mainstream media. This is over the top. It’s zooming around Twitter now. This is a BFD.
once a coward, always….MJT’s grandfather ran away from Bavaria because he didnt want to fight in a war…made his money running brothels in America during the gold rush days; went back to Bavaria where they stripped him of his citizenship because he ran from fighting…Trumps father had ‘bone spurs’, and this kept him out of WW2…Trump inherits his dad’s bone spurs (as well as his dad’s doctor) and he doesnt fight in vietnam…and when 9/11 occurred, Trumps kids grab their guns…and run off to go safari hunting in Africa, about as far away from NYC as possible…really…does anyone here know of any family at all, who have been living in this country for the past 150 years, who has had NO ONE AT ALL in their family fight for this country?
and what is his POINT, for God’s sake? He isn’t running against McCain. McCain is DEAD. This orange moron is just reliving 2016 because he felt really powerful then.
This was obviously not his point but John McCain, while not perfect, was worthy of a great deal of respect. Former guy is not worthy of anything more than a boot in the ass. drumpf is jealous pure and simple. Jealous of a dead man and it doesn’t get much more pathetic than that.
Scott Samuel Jackson’s comment sums up what happened to McCain well. Between inadequate care for broken bones suffered during the ejection of his jet and the years of systematic torture by the time he was forty McCain literally couldn’t lift his arms above shoulder level to even comb his hair! Fred Dalton Thompson talked about it at McCain’s nominating convention in fact.
I disagreed with McCain on a number of things, quite strongly in fact but never once doubted his love and devotion to this country or his willingness to sacrifice for it. Again if he had to. Once again I find myself wishing I believed in heaven and hell so that the following would carry more weight, especially to the conservatives that lurk here on PZ:
GOD DAMN YOU DONALD TRUMP! God damn you to HELL, you worthless excuse for a human being. YOU are no patriot, much less a warrior and have never and will never sacrifice a fucking thing for this country. YOU are nothing but gutless, draft dodging PUSSY!
Apologies for use of that last slur but sometimes you have to use even offensive words because nothing less will suffice. And for you conservatives lurking who are offended, go fuck yourselves. Then go fuck yourselves some more. Your support for someone as vile and despicable as Trump makes you no better than he is and that’s so low you can’t reach the bottom of the sewer even if you had a working version of Elon Musk’s BFR. (Big Fucking Rocket – the one that will take us to Mars someday)
You are typing truth. There are only a few leaders (Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin come to mind) whose deaths were in the best interests of the countries they once led. Donald Trump belongs in that category.
If there is a pied piper of mara lago, let’s make sure he gets paid
after he marches the beast into the ocean lest he lead him back in.
He’s got bone spurs alright in his stupid brain!!
He has bone spurs in … well, covered by his diaper.
John Cain represented the very best of the military code of honour and people need to be reminded of who he was and what he actually did. As for Trump, you made him and you continue to enable him. Anyone who has seen a monster movie knows that misguided experimentation and the worshiping of false idols( celebrities and wealthy folks) will not end well.
I read a few years ago (2015) when Trump was stinking over John McCain that Trump tried to get a HUD loan for nearly $400 million for luxury apartments and John McCain was one of the senators that denied the request, after all the money in HUD was for lower income housing. But when you say no to Agolf Shittler……..
Never a McCain fan but for solid reasons. McCain womanizer go his way through Annapolis. He showed up for one exam drunk and flunked it. He was about to be expelled but his Dad and Granddad, both Navy high ups, persuaded the commandant to let him retake the test (no other midshipman would have been allowed to.that). He retook, hungover, and barely passed. I suspect the professor was told to.pass him.
During his storied career he downed two planes. The first he landed in the drink in the Gulf. The flight surgeon told him he couldn’t fly for 25 hours. He flew anyway. Another pilot who behaved that way would have been at Captain’s Mast. The second he crashed in a field in PA returning from a visit to a girlfriend, whose marriage to another pilot he destroyed. The combo of downing 2planes,and an affair with the wife of another Naval.O would have gotten anyone else to resign. Adultery and destruction of 2 planes would have been taken serioysly. I guess when you have 2flag rank relatives keeps your career safe.
That divorcee he was visiting? He married her. He also dumped her later because the car accident left her with one shorter leg and a limp–and he’d already a skinny blonde with lots of money. Cindy became his second wife.
There is an old Rolling Stone article from 2008 that makes him look not nearly as heroic as he is normally portrayed. And a biography from reporters in Arizona who did the same and had years of dealing with him.
I suspect if he hadn’t been a POW, he would have gotten a job with some aerospace company or a lobbying group and faded into obscurity, if he had made it through his 20 years to retire. But then I was a,Navy Wife for 15 of thec35 years of my current marriage (I was a,widow atb34;second husband was career Navy).
He wasn’t perfect. Far from it in fact. That does not cancel out the fact he served in the Viet Nam conflict. His father and grandfather could have gotten him safer duty in the U.S.-much like W. got. The fact he did not get safe duty indicates he might not have even asked for it. I would be willing to bet his P.O.W. status helped get him elected but I would also bet all I have that he would have rather foregone that particular experience.
He served and drumpf didn’t. I’m not sure more needs to be said.