Donald Trump has been criticized for an insensitive comment he made mocking John McCain's arm injury, which he suffered while a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
The late senator's daughter, Meghan McCain, hit back by labeling the penultimate president on
Trump's comment about the elder statesman from Arizona came during a speech in Iowa, where he also criticized Barack Obama, who was in the White House until the year before McCain died in 2018.
Donald Trump has been criticized for mocking John McCain's arm injury, which he suffered while a prisoner of war in Vietnam, during a rally in Iowa (pictured)
The late senator's daughter, Meghan McCain, hit back by labeling the penultimate president on X as a “piece of s***, election-denying huckster.” (Pictured: John and Meghan McCain in 2017)
McCain served as an Arizona senator from 1987 until his death. He was also the Republican candidate in the 2008 elections against Obama
'Obamacare is a catastrophe, no one is talking about it. “We could have done it without John McCain,” Trump said from a lectern at a campaign event in Newton.
“But John McCain couldn't get his arm up, I remember,” he added, mockingly raising his own arm.
McCain, a former U.S. Navy officer who died in 2018, was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for six years until 1973.
He was seriously injured in a plane crash and tortured by kidnappers who left him with lifelong ailments, including the inability to raise his arms above his head.
Meghan McCain, 39, said her father was “an American hero” as she hit back at X on Saturday – which also marked the two-year anniversary of the Capitol riot.
'My father was an American hero. An icon. A patriot who will be remembered throughout history,” she wrote.
“I can't buy a bagel without someone approaching me and saying how much they loved and miss him.
“Trump is a piece of shit, election-denying, huckster whose own wife won't campaign with him.”
“McCain = American hero Trump = American zero,” someone responded.
McCain served as an Arizona senator from 1987 until his death at the age of 81. He was also the Republican candidate in the 2008 elections against Obama, becoming a strong critic of Trump.
His five and a half years in Vietnamese prison began in October 1967 after his Skyhawk dive bomber was shot down over Hanoi's Truc Bach Lake.
McCain was dragged from the lake and thrown into Hoa Lo prison – the infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' – where he and others say he was tortured. Vietnam says the American prisoners were treated well.
As a high-profile POW there, McCain was known for being uncompromising, outspoken and an avid reader who fiercely debated the war with his Vietnamese captors.
The late Senator John McCain in a hospital in Hanoi during the Vietnam War, November 1967
McCain is recovering in a hospital in Hanoi from the injuries he suffered when he was shot down over Hanoi
During a pre-dinner reception, US President Richard Nixon (1913 – 1994) shakes hands and greets former North Vietnamese prisoner of war Captain John McCain, Washington DC, May 24, 1973
One of them, the former warden of the infamous prison, recalls speaking verbally with the famous inmate and says McCain's refusal to budge from his positions ultimately earned him his admiration.
“It was his stubbornness and his strong attitude that I liked when I argued with him,” retired colonel Tran Trong Duyet told AFP.
McCain had been fished out of the lake with a broken leg and two broken arms and shipped to the cold, crowded facility where some 500 POWs were held.
His captors soon learned that McCain's father was a Navy admiral, and the young captive was soon nicknamed “Crown Prince.”
McCain was held in solitary confinement and suffered from dysentery. For months he was only fed bread and pumpkin soup. He communicated with fellow prisoners by typing codes on the thick concrete walls.
Toward the end of his long years in prison, Duyet said his relationship with McCain began to warm.
“Outside of work, we considered each other friends,” he said. “He taught me English…he had good teaching skills.”
Trump said during the presidential campaign that McCain was “not a war hero” because he had been captured in Vietnam.
The controversial comments inflamed his supporters, many of whom saw his time as a prisoner of war as a defining experience.
“John McCain will always be America's POW, that experience is now inextricably linked to the name John McCain and the person John McCain was,” said Alvin Townley, author of “Defiant,” about American POWs held at Hoa Lo.
McCain smiling from a bus window upon arrival at Clark Air Base, Philippines, following his release from Hanoi during the Vietnam War, March 14, 197
Meghan McCain, 39, said her father was “an American hero” as she hit back at X on Saturday – which also marked the two-year anniversary of the Capitol riot. (Image: McCain with Joe Biden on The View in 2017, when Biden was vice president)
Trump's comment came during his final appearance on the campaign trail this week.
The 77-year-old former president is embroiled in a firestorm over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, with new details emerging in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the attack.
Updates include interviews claiming Trump was “not interested” in doing anything to stop his supporters' riots at the Capitol following his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
According to ABC News, many of the new details come from Smith's questioning of Trump's former deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino.
But Trump is focused on the 2024 presidential election, which officially starts on January 15, when voters in Iowa will register their choice for who should be the Republican Party's nominee.
Trump still leads the Republican race by a country mile, with recent polls putting him at 51 percent, ahead of Ron DeSantis at 19 percent and Nikki Haley at 16 percent.