John McCain Tells GOP Debate Complainers To ‘Man Up And Move On’

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain talks to reporters about an incident earlier when members of an anti-war group approached a witness table where former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, Madele... Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain talks to reporters about an incident earlier when members of an anti-war group approached a witness table where former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and George P. Shultz were testifying, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. The protesters carried signs calling the 91-year-old Kissinger a war criminal, when McCain blurted out, "Get out of here, you low-life scum." As a Navy aviator during the Vietnam War, McCain was shot down during a bombing mission over Hanoi, then imprisoned and tortured by the North Vietnamese for five years. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who ran for president in 2008, joined the chorus of other conservatives wary of the demands some of the 2016 GOP contenders are floating for future debates.

“I think their complaints are legitimate, but come on, man up and move on,” McCain said while in the U.S. Capitol Tuesday, according to Reuters. “I think it’s OK if the temperature isn’t exactly 67 degrees.”

When asked whether he made his own debate conditions during his White House run against then Sen. Barack Obama, McCain said he did not.

“I should have. I don’t know why I didn’t. Maybe I’d have done better,” McCain said. “I should have said, ‘Barack Obama’s only allowed one answer. How’s that?’ It never crossed my mind, to tell you the truth.”

Latest Livewire
15
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. Tell us how many Senate votes you missed while campaigning. As I recall, when the economy hit the fan in Autumn 2008, you wanted the whole campaign to stop while you caught your breath, but Obama taught you that man-up-and-move-on strategy.

  2. McCain Mans-Up™ on Fiorina’s Man’ing-up™ to tell the men to Man-Up™.

    (rolls eyes)

  3. It doesn’t have to be all POTUS election all the time, TPM. How about covering something important like the idiocy going on with the ACA’s co-ops and how the GOP and good ole Ben Nelson set them up to fail from the get-go in order to protect the insurance giants from competition? And how they’re now failing and the GOP/Teatrolls are now trying to pretend they had nothing to do with it?

    I feel safe speaking for everyone when I say that we really don’t feel the need to hear and sniff every single mouth-fart that comes out of these idiots mouths about the POTUS election. Nobody gives a fuck what McCain has to say anymore except his estate planners.

  4. Life is bad when you have to say this to the candidates of your own party.

  5. Says the guy who unleashed Palin on the country. Without that, none of this happens. He simply lowered the bar to the point where any idiot can play, and have.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

9 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for lestatdelc Avatar for gelfling545 Avatar for humpback Avatar for squirreltown Avatar for irasdad Avatar for sniffit Avatar for bigbraxstone Avatar for ottnott Avatar for azjude Avatar for darrtown Avatar for cincypix Avatar for meta Avatar for wtf1

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: