Meghan McCain slams Arizona GOP's bid to censure her mom Cindy for backing Joe Biden and shame her for her public battle with addiction then smear her war hero husband
The Arizona Republican Party is on the brink of censuring Cindy McCain for campaigning for Joe Biden - a move her daughter Meghan slammed Sunday as coming from 'troglodytes.'
The party singled out John McCain's widow for rebuke after she publicly split from it and endorsed Biden in the presidential election, following Donald Trump's relentless attacks on the war hero after his death.
The censure passed the Maricopa County GOP Saturday, with 'near unanimous cheering/approval,' according to a tweet from the Arizona Republicans' account. The full party will consider the censure motion later this month.
But the party earned a swift rebuke both from Cindy McCain and her daughter Meghan, a co-host of ABC's The View.
'I like people who don't start insurrections or commit acts of domestic terrorism against our republic,' Meghan McCain tweeted, a reference to Trump's slur against her father that: 'I like heroes who weren't captured.'
And Cindy McCain tweeted: 'I am a proud lifelong Republican and will continue to support candidates who put country over party and stand for the rule of law.'
The censure motion included a bitter personal attack on Cindy McCain, about her battle with prescription opioids in the 1980s and early 1990s, something which she has been open about for decades.
Derision: Cindy and Meghan McCain attacked the Arizona GOP for moving to censure her. Her husband John was its most beloved figure but the party in the state now backs Trump over him. Trump lost the state in the general election and both its Senate seats have gone Democratic
Smear: Among the elements of the censure are an attack on John McCain's military service
It also smeared John McCain, saying he had been 'known for serious wrongdoing during his military service.'
It even supported Trump saying his attacks on the senator, which continued for years after his death and were most recently made on December 17, were 'truthful.'
The censure attacked Cindy McCain for supporting gay marriage and accused her of supporting 'others that run counter to Republican values,' which it did not specify.
And it demanded that the GOP in the state 'dissolve in perpetuity' and connection to any McCains 'who have supported her views and actions' - certain to be a reference to Meghan.
It also said that the censure would be discussed on 'January 23, 2020.'
The censure attempt marks the latest episode in the Arizona Republican Party's war with the McCains - despite John McCain having been its most famous and beloved figure.
John McCain died in August 2018, and since then both Senate seats have gone to Democrats, while Trump lost the state in November's election for only the second time since 1952.
The state party has become stridently pro-Trump, with its twitter account used to promote conspiracy theories about voting fraud and in the last few days repeatedly claimed that the MAGA rioters were 'antifa.'
Shortly after the riots, it tweeted a thread which condemned violence but said: 'As protesters-turned-rioters illegally stormed the U.S. Capitol this afternoon, one peaceful protesters in the street muttered: "This is getting out of control," to which another loudly responded: "And is exactly what happens when you treat Americans like bulls***."'
Beloved figure: John McCain was Arizona's senator from 1987 until his death in 2018, taking the seat of Barry Goldwater. His widow Cindy is a native of the state with deep Republican roots
Mourning: Cindy McCain, her daughter Meghan and sons Jimmy (left) and Jack (right) at John McCain's funeral. The entire McCain family was included in the censure motion
It has also attacked Jeff Flake, the former senator who stepped down in 2018 after a string of attacks by Trump.
Cindy McCain's Republican roots in Arizona run deeper than her late husband's.
Born Cindy Hensley, her father founded Hensley & Co., an Anheuser-Busch distribution business which made the family one of the state's wealthiest.
Cindy McCain was Junior Rodeo Queen of Arizona in 1968, and when she married John, smoothed his way into Arizona Republican politics, with the aid of her father's extensive party contacts.
She also largely lived in Arizona while her husband served in Washington - and it was in the late 1980s that she became addicted to prescription opioids, and began to get the director of her charity - a doctor - to write prescriptions in employees' names to get more of them.
Her parents staged an intervention in 1992 and she was charged by the Drug Enforcement Agency. She went public with her struggle with addiction and received the support of her husband and sought help, while she avoided charges as a result.
She has spoken repeatedly of her struggle, once telling Jay Leno that she triest 'to talk about it as much as possible because I don't want anyone to wind up in the shoes that I did.'
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