Cindy McCain said Wednesday she chose to endorse Joe Biden for the presidency because she wants a president who "cares about me and cares about this country," and she hopes her late husband, GOP Sen. John McCain, is "happy with what I'm doing and believes I've done the right thing."
"He would have been disappointed in what's going on," McCain told NBC News' Savannah Guthrie on "Today" about her husband. "I think John would have been certainly upset about the direction the country's going."
Biden, she said, "represents to me the kinds of values and integrity and courage that we want in a president."
McCain, a lifelong Republican, said she is "deeply concerned" with the direction of the country under President Donald Trump.
"I've known Joe for over 40 years," she said. "I know the kind of man that he is and I'm just so deeply honored to be part of this and I look forward to talking to people about who he is and what he stands for, and the kind of courage he has exemplified during the years."
McCain was part of a video at the Democratic National Convention but stopped short of endorsing Biden at that time. She said her decision came as a culmination of things, especially the release of the article in The Atlantic that reported Trump had called people in military service "losers" and "suckers."
"I do believe that our men and women that serve in the military are not losers," she said. "Certainly the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice are not losers ... we obviously are a very military family."
There is a long history of bad blood between the McCain family and Trump after he disparaged the senator's military history as a prisoner of war, but Cindy McCain said Tuesday she's supporting Biden because she thinks he's right for the country.
McCain also said that she remains close to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., even after he became a strong supporter of Trump.
"Lindsey is an old and very dear friend and I will always love him," she said. "He's like a member of my family. Republicans that are — that believe and are doing what they're doing, it's certainly their prerogative to do so. I just believe things should be different."
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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