President Donald Trump, for reasons no one appears able to fathom, has once again launched a verbal attack on the late Sen. John McCain, the long-serving Arizona Republican who died seven months ago from cancer.
As part of an interview set to air Friday morning, Fox Business reporter Maria Bartiromo asked Trump about the disparaging comments that he made about McCain during a trip to a military tank plant in Lima, Ohio.
“Why are you doing this?” Bartiromo asked the president after telling him that he spent “a good portion” of his time at the plant “trashing” the late senator.
Trump had noted that he “didn’t get a ‘thank you’” from the grieving McCain family for approving transportation needed for the senator’s funeral. The comments came days after the president bashed McCain on Twitter and in the Oval Office.
“It’s not a good portion of my time. It’s a very small portion,” Trump said before launching into his various criticisms of McCain. The president seems to believe McCain should not have immediately given federal authorities a dossier of information tying Trump to Russia for further investigation; rather, he should have called Trump first. The president also appears to have not gotten over the fact that McCain voted against his health care package in 2017.
“But Mr. President, he’s dead,” Bartiromo responded. “He can’t punch back, I know you punch back, but he’s dead.”
“No, I don’t talk about it,” Trump said. “People ask me the question.”
There we have it, maybe: Trump only attacks McCain because reporters ask him why he’s attacking McCain.