TUSCON, Ariz. – Former President Barack Obama compared former President Donald Trump’s character to that of the late Sen. John McCain at a rally at the University of Arizona on Friday.
Obama, who faced off against McCain in his successful bid for the White House in 2008, had only kind words for his one-time political nemesis in his remarks on Friday. On behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign.
“While I’m here in Tucson, I’m thinking about my friend John McCain,” Obama said as he spoke to several thousand Arizonans.
“I don’t want to over-romanticize our relationship,” Obama said, prompting laughter from the crowd. “But you know what? He understood that some values transcend party. He believed in honest debate and hearing the opinions of others. He did not consider his political opponents as demons.
Obama also praised McCain for standing up for him during a town hall in Lakeville, Minnesota during the 2008 election when a woman told him she didn’t trust Obama and called him an “Arab.”
“No, ma’am, he is a decent family man, a citizen, I just disagreed with him on fundamental issues,” McCain replied to the voter, to the applause of the crowd.
“One of the most troubling things about this election and the rise of Donald Trump in politics is how we’re putting aside the values that people like John McCain stand for,” Obama continued to criticize Trump.
“When Donald Trump lies, cheats, or abuses military personnel like John McCain as losers because they died in combat or were captured, or when he shows complete disregard for our Constitution…” Obama said.
McCain was captured and tortured during the Vietnam conflict. McCain’s service earned him two Purple Hearts and more than a dozen other military awards. He went on to represent the state in both the House and Senate for decades.
Trump campaigning for the 2015 presidential election in Ames, Iowa McCain called “He’s not a war hero … he was a war hero because he was captured,” before adding a “loser” to Obama in reference to his defeat.
Trump would go on to win his first presidential bid in Arizona in 2016, but he would become the first Republican to lose the southwestern state in 2020 since Bill Clinton won it as a Democrat in 1996.
A new voting block has emerged in Arizona after Trump’s insulting remarks. “McCain Republicans.” In 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris tried to sue the McCain wing of the Republican party in Arizona and praised him.
At a campaign rally in Chandler, Arizona earlier this month, Harris recalled McCain’s historic vote to save the Affordable Care Act.
“It took one more vote to keep it intact, and that vote was the late, great John McCain,” Harris said around Phoenix. “Great America, War Hero: John McCain. And I will never forget that night.”
It was a praise Obama repeated Friday as the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as “Obamacare,” remains in place because of McCain’s refusal to vote to repeal it.
“Donald Trump has spent his entire presidency trying to destroy it,” Obama said.
“Thank John McCain, he didn’t do it,” he added to thunderous applause.