The youngest son of the late Senator John McCain sharply criticized Donald Trump’s political appearance at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday and announced that he is now a Democrat and wants to vote for Kamala Harris.
“It was a violation,” Jimmy McCain told CNN about Trump’s actions in Arlington, where several generations of his family are buried. and where party political activities are prohibited.
McCain, who joined the Marine Corps at age 17 and served in the military for 17 years, recently returned from a months-long deployment to a small base on the Jordanian-Syrian border.
“It just blows my mind,” McCain said of Trump’s decision to use the cemetery as a backdrop for his campaign broadcasts. “Those men and women lying there in the ground have no other choice.”
Campaign activities are banned on U.S. military bases, including the Army’s Arlington National Cemetery, where a Trump campaign aide reportedly shoved a cemetery worker who tried to enforce the rules, according to an Army spokesman. Ironically, John McCain apologized for violating the same rule with an ad for his failed 2000 presidential campaign that featured himself walking through the cemetery.
“I think anyone who has served in uniform for a long time understands instinctively that this is not about you,” Jimmy McCain told CNN. “It’s about these people who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their country.”
McCain, who has been registered as an independent for several years, also said he registered as a Democrat weeks ago and will vote for Harris in November, adding that he will “engage in any way I can” to support her campaign.
The son of Cindy McCain and brother of Meghan McCain, the youngest McCain is the first member of his family to leave the Republican Party, a decision he said was motivated in part by Trump’s disrespect for fallen soldiers.
His sister tweeted on Tuesday that she would not join her brother in breaking away from the family’s conservative roots.
Jimmy McCain, who now serves as an intelligence officer with the 158th Infantry Regiment, also addressed Trump’s attacks on his father, who was allegedly “not a war hero” because he was captured in Vietnam. He told CNN: “One thing about John McCain is that he chose a public life. So attacking him is not really outside his scope of duties.”
“Many of these men and women who served their country chose to do something greater than themselves,” McCain said. “They woke up one morning, signed on the dotted line, raised their right hand and chose to serve their country. And that’s an experience that Donald Trump has not had. And I think that’s something he thinks about a lot.”
