July 25, 2017

Trump Praises “Hero” McCain for Returning to DC to Vote on Health Care

The president also lashed out at Jeff Sessions—again.

Chris Kleponis/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

President Donald Trump lauded Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as a “hero” for returning to Washington on Tuesday to vote on the Senate Republican health care bill to repeal Obamacare—a remarkable bit of praise coming from the president, who during the campaign infamously claimed McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent more than 5 years in North Vietnamese prison, was not a war hero because he had been captured.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in July 2015. “He was a war hero, because he was captured? I like people who weren’t captured.” He later half-apologized for the controversial remarks.

McCain’s vote could be vital for Republicans’ efforts to dismantle Obamacare, with Republican leaders desperately searching for 50 Republican senators to support the motion to begin debate on the bill. The Arizona senator had been absent from Congress after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer last week.

Trump’s praise for McCain on Tuesday came amid a series of tweets that were otherwise enraged, as he continued to lash out against the ongoing Russia investigations and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. After questioning his decision to appoint Sessions to the New York Times last week, Trump has repeatedly sought to publicly undermine Sessions. He appeared to ratchet up the attacks Tuesday by knocking Sessions as “very weak.”

Despite the attacks, Sessions said he intends to maintain his post as long as it’s “appropriate.” 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate