John Sidney McCain III, a noteworthy military officer and American politician, lost his battle to a rare type of brain cancer on August 25 – just days before his 82nd birthday. While most of the United States has been mourning and grieving the loss of McCain, POTUS Donald Trump has received heavy criticism for his response to the senator’s death.
As Bloomberg reminds us, Trump ordered the White House staff to raise the American flag back to full staff just a day after John passed away. Not only did this order anger a large portion of Americans, it inspired one of the largest veteran groups in the United States to send Trump a letter and request the flag to remain at half-staff until after John’s burial. This is an honor that has been given in the past to other great senators who died while serving in office.
During an interview with Bloomberg News at the Oval office, Trump was asked whether he thought he missed out on a prime opportunity to unite the U.S. with his response to McCain’s death. Did he make a mistake?
“No, I don’t think I did at all,” Trump responded during the interview.
“I’ve done everything that they requested and no, I don’t think I have at all.”
Trump defended his controversial reaction to the passing of McCain noting that he felt he had done everything that was asked of him.
President Trump denies he missed a chance to unite the country by honoring John McCain https://t.co/6YIeFHmLdo
— Ted Corcoran (RedTRaccoon) (@RedTRaccoon) August 31, 2018
In response to the backlash Trump received, the POTUS did order the flag to return to half-staff until McCain’s burial. For Donald, however, the criticism regarding his reaction to John’s death did not stop there. Many Americans were also upset that the POTUS only issued a brief condolence on Twitter hours after McCain passed away.
As those who followed McCain’s politics know, he and Trump clashed on several different policy issues. Even after John’s brain cancer news broke, he and the POTUS continued to go to war over the repeal of Obamacare. Notably, McCain’s vote to block a measure geared toward the repeal of Obamacare was one of the last votes he made as the Arizona senator.
“We had our disagreements and they were very strong disagreements,” Trump said as he reflected on John’s time in office during the interview. “I disagreed with many of the things that I assume he believed in.”
Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush are expected to speak at a ceremony for John McCain in Washington tomorrow. President Trump, with whom McCain frequently found himself at political odds, was not invited to participate. https://t.co/kr0KOsataf
— NPR (@NPR) August 31, 2018
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , there are many people from all walks of life who do not believe Trump responded properly to McCain’s death. This includes former President Jimmy Carter.
“I think both his (Trump’s) critics and also his supporters made it plain to him that he had made a mistake when the flag was up and down and so forth.”
Carter, however, also noted that he believed Trump later corrected the mistake by returning the flag to half-staff.
