Sen. John McCain said Donald Trump still hasn't apologized for disparaging his war record on the campaign trail, but he signaled that he had put the matter behind him and would be open to reconciling with the president.
During an interview with 60 Minutes broadcast Sunday, host Lesley Stahl asked the Arizona Republican whether he would be receptive to a "rapprochement" with Trump, who mocked him in 2015 for being captured and imprisoned during the Vietnam War.
"Of course. I've supported him on national security. I've supported his team," McCain said.
"But personal," Stahl asked. "I'm talking about man to man."
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"Personal? Sure," McCain said. "I'd be glad to converse with him. But I also understand that we're very different people."
CBS News started promoting the interview about the same time Friday that McCain announced he would not vote for the latest Republican effort to dismantle the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, imperiling the bill sponsored by Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. McCain said he thought lawmakers could develop better legislation by working across the aisle.
Trump on Saturday morning tweeted his displeasure at McCain's decision, saying the senator had betrayed his state and his colleagues.
"John McCain never had any intention of voting for this bill, which his governor loves," Trump wrote.
In July, McCain broke with his party and voted against a different health care repeal measure that the White House and Republican leaders hoped would deliver on years of promises to unravel the health care law. Cameras captured the moment late that night when McCain approached the Senate clerk, raised his arm and gave a thumbs down, sinking the legislation and infuriating the president.
Tension between Trump and McCain goes back several years. Shortly after Trump announced he was running for president in summer 2015, he ridiculed McCain's military service at an event in Iowa. McCain, a decorated U.S. Navy pilot, was imprisoned in Vietnam for more than five years, during which time he was tortured and kept in solitary confinement. "He's not a war hero," Trump said, adding "I like people that weren't captured."
The remarks came up again in McCain's interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday. After playing a clip of Trump's words, Stahl asked whether McCain's theatrical "no" vote in July was "more like a middle finger" and an attempt to retaliate against Trump.
"If I took offense at everybody who has said something about me, or disparaged me or something like that -- life is too short," McCain said. "You've got to move on. And on an issue of this importance to the nation, for me to worry about a personal relationship, then I'm not doing my job."
Stahl asked McCain whether the president had "initiated divorce proceedings with Republicans."
"I don't know what he's gonna do tomorrow or say tomorrow," McCain told the host. "He changes his statements almost on a daily basis. So for me to spend my time trying to analyze what he says, I don't know."
When the conversation turned to Trump's comments about McCain's war record, McCain said the president had never apologized to him. He said he would be happy to talk with Trump but noted that they had "different life experiences."
"He is in the business of making money and he has been successful both in television as well as Miss America and others," McCain said. "I was raised in the concept and belief that duty, honor, country is the lodestar for behavior that we have to exhibit every single day."
McCain, 81, has been outspoken in his criticism of Trump. In a commentary for The Washington Post last month, he urged members of Congress to seek compromise with one another, even if it means bucking the president. Trump, he said, "has no experience of public office, is often poorly informed and can be impulsive in his speech and conduct."
"We must, where we can, cooperate with him. But we are not his subordinates," McCain wrote. "We don't answer to him. We answer to the American people."
A Section on 09/26/2017