Sen. John McCain is an American hero, and people who have booing him and using him for political points at a time while he's fighting for his life should keep their mouths shut and "show a little dignity," MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Tuesday morning.
"You have a man who is dying and you are using him for political punch lines on talk radio, and also audiences in Alabama?" the "Morning Joe" host, angered at McCain's treatment by President Donald Trump and during an Alabama rally last week, said during a monologue on his program.
"For people watching at home, if you are in the audience and John McCain is getting attacked and he's fighting for his life, unless you were raised in a barn, keep your mouth shut, all right?" Scarborough said. "Show a little respect. Show a little dignity. Show a little class."
Scarborough, a University of Alabama graduate, said he is disgusted by Trump's attacks on the Arizona GOP senator and former Vietnam prisoner of war, who is fighting brain cancer, and by audiences in Alabama last week who booed on cue when the president slammed McCain during a rally for interim Sen. Luther Strange.
"Who raised them?" Scarborough asked. "Who raised these people? Because I guarantee you, I was raised in the same region and the same socioeconomic background going to the same Southern Baptist churches, going to the same public schools, going to the same public colleges, state schools, that these people went to. So I ask, who raised these people? Who have they become that they would boo a man who is fighting for his very life, and has served the country?"
McCain was told, while being held as a POW, that he could be released from prison as his father was a powerful man.
"For those of you booing John McCain right now and are too ignorant to read a book, John McCain said, 'No, I'm not going to go home until all my men go home with me,'" said Scarborough. "You should keep your mouths shut and you should go home and you should talk to your children and you should tell the story of John McCain to your children."
McCain served his country, Scarborough said, "when he could have done what Donald Trump did. He could have avoided the draft. His father was one of the most powerful men in America. He could have stayed home like Donald Trump and he could have chased models."
Instead, McCain wanted to serve his country and fight communism, and instead of remaining behind enemy lines, he flew repeated missions in North Vietnam, said Scarborough, a former U.S. representative.
"When he got shot down, when he got beaten, when he got abused to such a degree that the man can't even raise his arms up to his shoulders, he got thrown in prison and refused to leave," said Scarborough.
"Do you have the character to do that?" he continued. "Actually, if you boo John McCain, you've already answered that question. Someone has failed you in your life."
Scarborough urged those who booed McCain to go to church and pray for themselves, and when they get their heads "screwed on right" and start putting "humanity ahead of politics" then they should go home and tell their children about McCain's service, and how he put others ahead of himself, his safety, and his freedom.
"If you can teach your children that lesson, maybe they will grow up to have a little more character than you," Scarborough said. "If that is the case, then maybe there will be hope for this country yet."
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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