Cindy McCain, the widow of former U.S. Senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, endorsed Democratic nominee Joe Biden for president on Tuesday. “There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is Joe Biden,” McCain wrote in a tweet.
McCain called Biden a “good and honest man” and said he’d make a good commander-in-chief “because he knows what it is like to send a child off to fight.”
Biden’s son, Beau, served as an officer in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps while three of McCain’s children served in the military. John McCain volunteered for combat duty during the Vietnam War and spent five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war after being shot down during a bombing run over North Vietnam.
Biden mentioned the news of McCain’s endorsement during a Tuesday event: “Maybe I shouldn’t say it but I’m about to go on one of these Zooms with John McCain’s wife, who is first time ever is endorsing me, because of what he talks about with my son and John’s who are heroes, who served their country, you know [Trump] said they’re losers, they’re suckers.”
Biden was referring to the president’s recent alleged statements about the U.S. military. Mr. Trump reportedly called Americans who died at war “losers” and “suckers,” according to an article in the Atlantic. He has denied those claims.
McCain has previously shown her support for Biden in other ways, including narrating a video tribute during the Democratic National Convention about John McCain’s friendship with Joe Biden. In an interview with the Associated Press, she also noted her own closeness with Biden.
“We’ve been great friends for many years, but we have a common thread in that we are Blue Star families,” McCain said. According to the AP, the McCains were introduced to each other by the Bidens.
During the 2016 campaign, John McCain declined to endorse then-Republican nominee Mr. Trump. He refused to support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as well.
Mr. Trump slammed John McCain while running for president in 2015, saying “he’s not a war hero.”
“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Mr. Trump said. The president was not invited to John McCain’s funeral and later expressed his frustration at not being thanked for the funeral.
“I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted. Which as President, I had to approve. I don’t care about this — I didn’t get a thank you. That’s OK. We sent him on the way, but I wasn’t a fan of John McCain,” Mr. Trump said last year.
John McCaine died in 2018 at the age of 81 following a battle with brain cancer.
