Army 1st Lt. Jimmy McCain, the son of late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), feigned outrage over former President Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery despite his father making an ad there.
During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday, the younger McCain blasted Trump for honoring the 13 fallen U.S. service members who were killed during the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan.
The comment from the younger McCain comes after his father used footage from Arlington National Cemetery in a campaign advertisement in 1999.
A spokesman from McCain’s campaign revealed in November 1999 that footage from the cemetery would be removed from the campaign ad, according to the Los Angeles Times:
The Army said this week that the Arizonan’s campaign did not ask permission to film him at the cemetery. Any request to do so would have been denied because partisan activity is banned at Army installations, the Army said. McCain acknowledged that his campaign erred and sent a letter to the Army saying that the scenes would be cut.
When Tapper mentioned how his father had used footage from Arlington National Cemetery in an ad and how Trump’s visit to the cemetery had “bothered” McCain’s son, the younger McCain pointed out that his father “pulled it down.”
“The first thing about John McCain, you don’t spend that long in politics without messing up once or twice,” the younger McCain said. “The main point is that he pulled it down and he understood the solemn — the sanctified nature of that — of Arlington National Cemetery. So, if Donald Trump pulled it down and apologized, it would be the right thing to do.”
