Republicans launch debased attack on Cindy McCain for backing ‘leftist’ marriage equality

Cindy McCain, widow of former Arizona Senator John McCain

Arizona Republicans are seeking to censure Cindy McCain, the widow of late senator and war hero John McCain, for opposing Donald Trump and supporting equal marriage.

Republicans in the state, represented by John McCain for three decades until his death in 2018, have hit out at his widow for showing insufficient loyalty to the Trump administration.

A proposed resolution put forward by the state party seeks to censure McCain for her regular warnings about creeping extremism in the Republican Party under Trump, and also for her long-standing support for equal marriage.

The Arizona Republican Party confirmed via Twitter: “The @AZGOP will vote on a Censure McCain resolution on Jan 23. Thank you!”

Republicans brand Cindy McCain ‘troubled’.

The party noted that there was “near unanimous cheering/approval” for a censure of Cindy McCain when a separate motion was put forward at a meeting of the Maricopa County Republicans, though the measure did not proceed for administrative reasons.

The resolution delivers a series of low blows aimed at the war hero’s widow, the Arizona Republic notes, describing her as a “troubled individual, with a past riddled with drug abuse and illegalities associated with such behaviour”.

Cindy McCain, widow of former Arizona Senator John McCain

Cindy McCain, widow of former Arizona Senator John McCain (Getty/FilmMagic)

The motion slams McCain for a “failure to support Conservative Republican candidates such as president Trump” and support for “globalist policies and candidates… in direct opposition to Republican values”.

In case the “globalist” dog whistle wasn’t quite loud enough, the motion spells out: “Cindy McCain has supported leftist causes such as gay marriage, growth of the administrative state, and others that run counter to Republican values, a Republican form of government, and the US Constitution.”

Support for LGBT+ rights is nothing new for Cindy McCain.

Cindy McCain has been a long-time proponent of LGBT+ rights, taking a much more progressive stance than her husband.

In 2010, she and daughter Meghan McCain came out in favour of same-sex marriage, taking a very public stand on the issue by fronting a campaign for equality, while John McCain clarified that he remained opposed

In 2013, she caused more tensions around the dinner table by signing a petition calling on her own husband to back a non-discrimination law to extend civil rights protections to LGBT+ people.

She won her husband round eventually, with  John McCain becoming one of the few Republicans to vote in favour of LGBT+ non-discrimination protections, and also speaking out in opposition to president Donald Trump’s proposed transgender military ban shortly before his death.

 

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