Sen. John McCain appreciates that his fellow Arizona senator was willing to stick up for him when meeting with Donald Trump this week.
“Jeff, in my view, is a man of character and great integrity. I appreciate his friendship,” McCain said Friday morning.
Jeff Flake, the state’s junior senator, openly criticized Trump, his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, on Thursday during closed-door meetings with fellow Republican members of the House and Senate.
Flake introduced himself as “the other senator from Arizona, the one who didn’t get captured” — showing his distaste for comments Trump made about McCain, when Trump told a crowd a year ago that he liked people who hadn’t been captured.
McCain spent 5½ years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.
But McCain said Flake is angry at Trump for more recent statements.
“I think Jeff is more offended by the remarks about Hispanics being murderers and rapists. We have a very large Hispanic population in Arizona and it is growing,” McCain said. “I think that Jeff was correct in saying that.”
McCain said a previous commitment as chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services prevented him from attending the Trump meeting. It wasn’t practical to cancel a meeting held at the same time as Trump’s visit, McCain said. “We schedule these hearings weeks ahead of time so that the witnesses will be able to plan on being there,” he said.
Flake told reporters after meeting with Trump that despite wanting to support his party’s nominee, he can’t.
“My position remains I want to support the nomination. I really do,” Flake said. “I just can’t support him given the things that he’s said.”
McCain, who, unlike Flake is up for re-election this year, said he will support the Republican nominee. He noted that he agrees with Trump on several issues, specifically mentioning reducing bureaucratic red tape and lowering taxes.
He said his biggest disagreement with Trump continues to be over national security. He disagrees with Trump over the need for NATO, for example, and has concerns about some statements Trump has made that are supportive of recent Russian aggression in the Ukraine, a McCain campaign spokeswoman said.
