opinion

John McCain: Donald Trump 'fired up the crazies'

Could Donald Trump be the guy who brings down Sen John McCain?

McCain told The New Yorker that Trump's visit to Phoenix last weekend was "very hurtful to me because what he did was he fired up the crazies."

The crazies have long disliked McCain for his willingness to break a decades-long gridlock and actually attempt to reform our immigration system.

In crazy speak that makes him … say it with me now… a part of the open-borders crowd.

Never mind that what he's called for is a nuanced plan designed to improve border security, expand guest worker programs so that people can come here legally, reduce chain migration in order to make room for the more high-skilled workers that we need and yes, offer legal status and eventual citizenship to those who are already here.

Unfortunately, nuance doesn't work when frustration flares to anger, especially when an ambitious politician is there to not only fan the flames but toss gasoline onto the inferno.

Trump hysteria plays great for state Sen. Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu City. The Tea Partier and three-year state legislator best known for holding a hearing to address chem trails in Kingman, standing with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and proposing bills to nullify federal gun laws in Arizona, is challenging McCain next year and hoping to ride the crazytrain to Washington.

A train that likely has once again picked up passengers after Trump's recent rants and his standing-room-only visit to Phoenix.

"We did to some degree regain control of the Party," McCain told The New Yorker. "Now he galvanized them."