Critic Kelli Ward: McCain Announcement Timed to Hurt Her Campaign

A candidate in Arizona’s GOP Senate primary claimed hours before Sen. John McCain's death that his family’s announcement he’d no longer receive brain cancer treatment was timed to undermine her campaign.

Kelli Ward was reacting to a post by one of her campaign staffers questioning whether it was “just a coincidence” the McCain family’s announcement came the same day Ward started a campaign bus tour, the Arizona Republic reported.

"I think they wanted to have a particular narrative that they hope is negative to me," Ward wrote in a now-deleted remark on Facebook, the news outlet reported.

In a follow-up comment, Ward wrote she had on multiple occasions encouraged prayers for a "suffering" McCain and his family, The Washington Examiner reported — and that the media took her comments out of context.

The Republican primary in Arizona on Tuesday is to name a candidate to run for the seat being left vacant by retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake.

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