Trump attacks McCain, again, saying he ‘didn’t get a thank you’ for approving the senator’s funeral

President Donald Trump continued Wednesday to attack the late Sen. John McCain, even as a growing number of Republican senators rose to McCain’s defense, calling him a war hero and a patriot – although most were careful not to criticize the president directly.

During a White House event at a manufacturing facility in Lima, Ohio, on Wednesday, Trump lashed out at McCain, saying, “I endorsed him at his request, and I gave him the kind of funeral he wanted, which as president I had to approve.”

“I don’t care about this,” Trump continued. “I didn’t get a thank-you. That’s OK. We sent him on the way. But I wasn’t a fan of John McCain.”

Presidents don’t “approve” the funerals of members of Congress. To lie in state, one needs the approval of Congress. The funeral would have been approved by the Washington National Cathedral. Trump did approve the military transportation of McCain’s remains from Arizona to Washington, military pallbearers, a band and military horses.

Comments like Wednesday’s and those that have preceded it were too much for Sen. Johnny Isakson. The Georgia Republican called the duration of the White House’s tribute to McCain “unthinkable” last year, after it lowered its flag to recognize the death of McCain on a Saturday, then raised it again by Monday. Trump rejected his staff’s suggestions and refused to follow a tradition of leaving the flag at half-staff until the senator was laid to rest.

Isakson has said that moment and others fit a troubling pattern, and after an escalation of bitter words from the president this week, the senator took to the airwaves in a rare moment for his party: a stinging rebuke of Trump. Read more

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