Donald Trump faces blowback over his tweet about John McCain’s death
Senator John McCain passed away tonight, after a battle with brain cancer. Eloquent remarks about his life and heroism came pouring out all across social media from both sides of the aisle. Then there was a tweet from Donald Trump which, depending on how you parse it, may have been well meaning or may have been yet another backhanded insult aimed at the late McCain.
Here’s what Donald Trump tweeted: “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!” This would be fine if not for the fact that Trump had spent the past few years attacking McCain for having been a prisoner of war, and continuing to attack McCain while he was dying. The other big problem here is the wording of the tweet. Trump offered “respect” to McCain’s family, but not to McCain himself.
So was this merely a poorly worded tweet, or was it an intentional attempting at snubbing McCain? There’s no way of knowing. But the sheer disingenuousness of Donald Trump posting such a tweet prompted a torrent of blowback in Trump’s Twitter feed. Author Danielle Binks responded by saying “Take his name out of your mouth you felonious fool.” LGBT activist Brandon Hilton also lashed out at Trump: “LIAR!!! You attacked him repeatedly while you knew he was dying and you kissed Putins ass while McCain did everything he could to oppose him.”
The majority of the visible responses to Donald Trump’s tweet were along these lines. It was as if Trump’s remaining supporters didn’t know what to say. There was no possible way to defend the manner in which Trump treated John McCain while he was alive, and of course Trump is a five time draft dodger who committed treason by conspiring with Russia to alter the outcome of the election in his favor.
