Jimmy McCain, son of the late Sen. John McCain, endorses Joe Biden’s presidential campaign
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOENIX (AP) — Republican voters and party leaders who want nothing to do with Donald Trump are reaching out to the man they once considered a political enemy. They’re donating, organizing and even campaigning for Democrat Joe Biden.
On Friday, Jimmy McCain, the late Sen. John McCain’s son, announced his support for Biden.
The younger McCain announced that he and his family will work to get Biden elected.
“We’re going to try to do everything to help you, Joe,” Jimmy McCain said during a virtual fundraiser for Biden. “My mom can’t do it. It’s okay. I learned to live without my mom. My dad can’t do it. I learned to live without my dad. ”
The event was hosted by former Virginia Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe and attended by Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala. and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Jimmy McCain appeared with Men in Black star Tommy Lee Jones.
It was a rare political public moment for Jimmy McCain, who’s been out of the public eye since his father died of a brain tumor two years ago.
The message was clear, in Mr. McCain’s view, the importance of selecting leaders that “govern with heart, integrity and character.”
Jimmy McCain’s older sister, conservative host Meghan McCain, is a critic of Biden and has expressed support for Trump.
Longtime McCain adviser Mark Salter said the endorsement reflects the McCain family’s disappointment in Trump.
THE FACTS: Jimmy McCain was unusually close to his father during the elder McCain’s tenure in the Senate. But it was John McCain’s widow, Cindy, who actually worked on Biden’s behalf and lent her voice to a video criticizing Trump during the Democratic National Convention last month.
The video ended with a clip of Biden, then the vice president, turning to John McCain at a particularly tumultuous town hall with enraged Republicans in 2013 and telling them, “I really mean this, if you need us, give me a call.”
The ailing Republican senator, sitting next to Biden, made a joke. One he would repeat often.
“Which of you else is together with Joe Biden?” the younger McCain said on the call. “Listen, I have known Joe most of my adult life, I love him to death. He is as fine a man as God ever created.”
The Biden campaign has celebrated the endorsement. “This is not about politics, it’s about patriotism and saving the soul of America,” spokesman Andrew Bates said.
Biden visited Cindy McCain at her home in April 19 to express condolences in person for her husband’s illness and talk about the state of the nation as he saw it, Salter said.
The relationship between the McCains and Biden was a complicated one. They frequently sparred over policy in the Senate but developed an unlikely friendship. Cindy McCain, a registered Republican, is part of Biden’s transition team.
The McCains’ community backing of Biden has elicited little public response from Trump, who has feuded with the McCains for years and remains popular with many Republican voters.