Late Sen. John McCain would have been "terribly frustrated and terribly distraught" by the current state of discourse in politics, his widow Cindy said in an interview airing Friday, and she hopes President Donald Trump will learn from the losses in the midterm elections.
"It's very humbling to lose and I hope he learns from it," McCain told "CBS This Morning" co-host John Dickerson in her first interview since her husband's death in August. "This country needs a strong leader, not a negative Nancy."
McCain added that she respects the office of the president, but admitted that at times "it's been hard" for her to listen to Trump criticizing her husband.
"We need our president," McCain said. "We need a White House that's strong, we need a White House that's not sparring with each other...things are in disarray, and I would hope through this that he does learn."
Sen. McCain died in August, almost a year after he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. His wife insisted that it was not her husband's intention to rebuke Trump while planning his funeral, even though he had specifically excluded the president from attending.
Daughter Meghan, however, criticized Trump's "Make America Great Again" motto, saying that in her father's America, there was no need for that, because "America was always great."
Cindy McCain said she did not know what her daughter was going to say, but that she does speak her mind, just like her father did, and she was proud of her.
McCain also said the Trumps did not reach out to her after her husband's death, but that was okay, as that was not what she needed at the time.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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