Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said real estate mogul and presidential candidate Donald Trump has galvanized “the crazies” in the Republican party, in an interview published Thursday by The New Yorker.
McCain talked with the magazine’s Ryan Lizza about Trump’s recent speech in Phoenix to a few thousand supporters.
“This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful to me,” McCain told the magazine. “Because what he did was he fired up the crazies.”
And an activated population of conservative Republicans could spell trouble for McCain.
The longtime senator is up for reelection in 2016 and already has a primary challenger. Arizona state Sen. Kelli Ward (R) announced her candidacy Tuesday for the seat McCain has held since 1987.
“We have a very extreme element within our Republican Party,” McCain told the New Yorker. “We did to some degree regain control of the Party.”
A longtime supporter of immigration reform and a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight, McCain said Trump’s hardline message about the border could be resonating with Republican voters.
“People who otherwise might be more centrist are angry about this border situation,” he said.
