Cindy McCain asked Kurt Volker to resign from McCain Institute, she says in CNN interview

Bill Goodykoontz | The Republic | azcentral.com

Cindy McCain asked Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative to Ukraine involved in the whistleblower scandal, to resign from the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University, she said Saturday on CNN.

“Yes,” she told David Axelrod, the host of “The Axe Files” during a wide-ranging, one-hour interview conducted in her Phoenix home. “Kurt is a good man. A good man. But this was overshadowing the Institute and it was overshadowing what we do and what we work for. So it was time.

“Kurt needs to concentrate on what’s going on now. He’s a good man. I’m sorry all this happened, I really am. But my first goal is to look out for the Institute.”

Volker resigned as the executive director of the think tank in early October.

It was one of many revelations that McCain, the widow of the late Sen. John McCain, offered during the interview. She also said that she wrote in her husband’s name when she voted in the 2016 presidential election — and she would not commit to not voting for President Donald Trump, a frequent and often ugly critic of John McCain even after death, in 2020.

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Of course, she was not about to commit to voting for him, either. But she was adamant that no matter how she votes, she will not be changing political parties.

“I’m not leaving the Republican Party,” she said. “I love the Republican Party. That’s our home.”

Clearly, however, there is no love lost between McCain, her family and the resident of the White House. Axelrod, who served as the chief strategist for President Barack Obama during his presidential campaigns, asked McCain why she thought Trump went after John McCain so bitterly, and continues to do so, even in death.

The look on her face was priceless — and hard to describe. Kind of a cross between anger and genuine bewilderment.

“I cannot answer that,” she said. “I do not know.”

She stumbled for words a bit before continuing.

“I’ve been baffled by this. I really don’t know what’s going on. I do know this. I know that John was a hero, and will continue to be a hero, and I think most Americans would agree with me on that, whether you agreed with his politics or not, he was a good man.”

McCain also offered an opinion on what her husband would think of the current political climate.

“Oh, gosh,” she said. “I think he’d be disgusted with some of the stuff that’s going on right now.”

The interview also touched on her addiction to prescription drugs, her support for immigrants, McCain friend Sen. Lindsey Graham’s somewhat-bizarre support of Trump (“I have offered my advice, yes I have”), her husband’s campaigns for the presidency, his return to Washington, D.C., for his now-famous thumbs-down vote on repealing Obamacare (the entire family told him not to travel but he wouldn’t hear of it) and more.

For instance, Axelrod asked her whether she seriously considered stepping in for her husband in the U.S. Senate after he died, an idea that was floated in some circles — evidently some important circles.

“I was talked to seriously,” she said. “I did think about it. But at the time it was just moments after my husband had died. I had to weigh which was more important, and my family was more important.”

She also said that it was ultimately her decision not to invite Trump to her husband’s funeral.

“Well, I had to worry about my family,” she said. “The family was somewhat bitter about things that had been said about their dad. It would have been very disruptive to my children, and so I took their lead on this whole thing. It was ultimately my choice and my decision. … I didn’t want anything to overshadow John McCain that day.”

She also talked about her husband’s last moments alive, and how fitting they were. They had just finished lunch.

“I knew it was close,” she said.

McCain was in bed, overlooking the creek outside their home in Cornville. They were listening to music.

“On the playlist, it comes up Frank Sinatra, ‘My Way,’ on its own,” she said. “Then one of the hawks that he loved so much that nested up there, he was sitting on the corner of the roof and then he flew across the yard and landed in a low tree just looking at us and stayed right there, and that was about the moment that John passed.

“He did it his way. That’s what he was all about.”

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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