In an interview Sunday with CNN, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said it was ‘foolish’ for members of his party not to unite behind presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“You have to listen to people that have chosen the nominee of our Republican Party,” McCain told CNN’s State of the Union. “I think it would be foolish to ignore them.”
McCain warned that leaders in his party who have been hesitant or all-out resistant to Trump were “out of step.”
“You have to draw the conclusion that there is some distance, if not a disconnect, between party leaders and members of Congress and the many voters who have selected Donald Trump to be the nominee of the party,” McCain said in the interview.
McCain is facing re-election in Arizona and has both a primary challenge and general election to get through back home, making his calculations about Trump complicated. While McCain applauded Trump’s foreign policy credentials, he also told CNN “a lot of things would have to happen” before he campaigned alongside Trump.
Trump had previously mocked McCain for being a prisoner of war. McCain told CNN that “I think it’s important for Donald Trump to express his appreciation for veterans, not John McCain, but veterans who were incarcerated as prisoners of war.”
