Washington, DC — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the president’s criticism this past week of the late Senator John McCain may’ve been inappropriate but Grassley doesn’t think Trump needs to apologize. Grassley was asked about the President saying McCain had pushed for a war, failed America’s veterans, and Trump complained he wasn’t thanked for how the Arizona Republican’s funeral was handled.
Following a town hall meeting in DeWitt, Grassley simply said “no” when asked if Trump should apologize to the McCain family for his negative comments. When pressed for elaboration, Grassley said, “You better ask the President that.”
Grassley says it makes him “irritated” when he’s asked to respond to something — like a comment from the President — which he doesn’t know anything about.
Grassley says his committee priorities include trade deals with Canada and Mexico and getting drug prescription prices down. McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017 and died last August. Trump and McCain had long been rivals. Speaking in Ames during the presidential campaign in 2015, Trump said of McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
McCain served in the U-S Navy. His plane was shot down in Vietnam in 1967, he was captured, held prisoner and tortured for more than five years.
