Meghan McCain Unloads on Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Over Her Father's Funeral
Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona, shared on CBS’ “The Late Show” on Thursday that Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner were not welcomed and wished they had not attended her father’s funeral last September.
During her eulogy at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., McCain took a pointed shot at President Donald Trump, saying, “We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly.”
“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert asked McCain after quoting the line, “(D)id you know that Jared and Ivanka Trump would be attending when you wrote this?”
She answered that she did not, but added, “I thought that my family made it clear — or at least I had, that the Trumps were unwelcomed around me and my father, had sort of been very clear about the line between the McCains and the Trumps.
“So I was surprised when they were there and it made me uncomfortable, and I hope I made them uncomfortable, honestly, with everything.”
“The View” co-host went on to explain that her father had “designed his funeral to be sort of a bridging for America and healing.”
McCain pointed to his request that two of his former rivals for the presidency — George W. Bush and Barack Obama — speak at the occasion.
But she indicated the healing did not include the feud between the Trumps and the McCains.
“I really want it made very clear that the Trumps have beef with me then and in the words of (rapper) Cardi B, they’re gonna have beef with me forever and I’m not going to forget,” McCain said.
She concluded her thoughts on Ivanka Trump’s and Kushner’s attendance at the funeral saying, “I wish they had chosen not to out of respect, if nothing more, for me, but it’s their call, and I think America can judge on its own what they thought of that and what they thought of my eulogy.”
Colbert went on to question McCain about her decision to leave Fox News and join ABC’s “The View” in October 2017.
The commentator said she did so at her father’s urging, who at that point had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
The senator told her, “You can’t not work with Whoopi Goldberg.”
Meghan McCain related that Goldberg and her father were friends, and the Academy Award-winning actress has become like family.
Colbert wondered whether McCain still considered herself a Republican. She responded that she did though not of the “Trump populist” sort, but definitely a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment conservative.
McCain noted that she still largely votes Republican at the local elections in her home state of Arizona.
Colbert queried if there were any candidates she was excited about in 2020.
“I will be very interested to see if Joe Biden gets in the race, because I love him on a personal level,” McCain said.
She did not say whether she would vote for him, but did say she would have to leave being an on-air political commentator if he ran because she would not be able to say anything negative about the former vice president.
McCain elaborated that she and Biden have a “strange and intense bond,” due to his son and her father dying from the same type of cancer, glioblastoma.
The feud between the late Sen. McCain and Trump began in July 2015, shortly after the New York businessman announced his candidacy for the presidency.
McCain told The New Yorker at the time that Trump “fired up the crazies” when he held a rally in Phoenix.
“We’ll see how this plays out, but there is some anger in my state,” the Arizona lawmaker said of Trump’s prospects. “People who otherwise might be more centrist are angry about this border situation.”
Days later at a candidate forum in Iowa, Trump referenced McCain’s disparaging remarks about those who attended the rally. “They weren’t crazies,” the then-candidate said. “They were great American people. … He insulted me and he insulted everyone in that room.”
Trump noted that he supported McCain’s presidential bid raising a significant amount of money, but suggested instead of showing appreciation the senator was attacking him. Trump described him as a “loser,” to which moderator Frank Luntz interjected, saying to the contrary McCain was a “war hero.”
“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump replied.
McCain did not endorse Trump’s candidacy following his becoming the Republican nominee and cast the deciding vote against the so-called “skinny repeal” of Obamacare in July 2017.
The 45th president has made reference to that vote many times since, including to The New York Times earlier this week.
“By the way, (McCain) wrote a book and the book bombed,” Trump said of “The Restless Wave,” in which the late senator takes some final shots at the chief executive.
The president’s obsession with my father 6 months after his death is pathetic and telling – even at a time when he should be focusing on his message to the American public and the state of our union – the greatness of my father’s life and legacy haunts you. https://t.co/JLgHoZwCKD
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) February 6, 2019
Meghan McCain tweeted in response to the article, “The president’s obsession with my father 6 months after his death is pathetic and telling – even at a time when he should be focusing on his message to the American public and the state of our union – the greatness of my father’s life and legacy haunts you.”
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