One Last Disgrace: McCain Family to Support Joe Biden

On the one hand, maybe it’s understandable. They never got over Donald Trump’s insult to their husband and father during the 2016 primaries, where the Republican candidate questioned John McCain’s war hero status. Seems to us that’s a pretty petty thing to hold onto (and it isn’t like McCain didn’t get to serve his cold dish of revenge with that Obamacare vote), but hey, maybe that’s just how they are. Doesn’t make it right or honorable, but maybe it’s understandable.

But whether it’s pathetic or understandable, it’s happening. According to the Washington Examiner, John McCain’s widow Cindy and his daughter Meghan will both offer their public support for former Vice President Joe Biden as he attempts to win the 2020 Democratic primary.

From the Examiner:

In an extraordinary snub to Trump, who derided McCain’s Vietnam War service and mocked him even after his death last August at age 81, the McCain family is preparing to break with the Republican Party. McCain represented the party in Congress for 35 years and was chosen as its presidential nominee in 2008, losing to Barack Obama.

Sources close to both Biden’s presidential campaign and the McCains said that at some point during the White House race, McCain’s widow Cindy, 64, and daughter Meghan, 34, a host on “The View,” will offer their public support in the hope of removing Trump from office in 2020.

A former McCain campaign official with close ties to the family said support for Biden was a given, but they needed to calculate how they could best help the former vice president. Both Cindy and Meghan McCain remain Republicans, and one consideration is whether endorsing Biden in the Democratic primary could do him more harm than good. “It’s undeniable that Joe Biden and the McCain family have a very close, personal relationship. It’s about what’s good for him [Biden].”

We were wondering if they’d considered that last bit. Joe Biden is already facing serious questions from the so-called “progressives” about his record, which doesn’t really match the current, radical direction of the Democratic Party. If he gets tainted with the support of lifelong Republicans like the McCains, it could absolutely hurt his chances of winning the nomination. Hillary Clinton got plenty of Republicans behind her when Trump was poised to take the nomination; it certainly did not help her win in the end.

And that’s part of it, too. People see this for what it is. Trump won because voters could tell he was actually going to go to Washington and shake things up. He was going to do what he said he was going to do, and that’s more than you can say for most politicians running for office. In time, he’s shown that he wasn’t just bluffing. McCain’s family represents that old Republican Party, which was happy to take second place as long as the ideology was pure.

In any case, Trump may or may not be concerned about Joe Biden, but we doubt he’s sweating the effect that Meghan McCain will have on the race.