This Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced that he’ll be introducing a bill to rename to the Russell Senate Office Building after the late Arizona Senator John McCain. The move comes as President Trump receives growing backlash over his repeated attacks on McCain since his death in August of last year.
Schumer announced the resolution in a tweet this Wednesday.
I look forward to soon re-introducing my legislation re-naming the Senate Russell Building after American hero, Senator John McCain.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 20, 2019
“I look forward to soon re-introducing my legislation re-naming the Senate Russell Building after American hero, Senator John McCain,” Schumer tweeted.
Trump resumed his habit of attacking McCain at the White House on Tuesday during a joint press conference with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, saying that he was “never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be.”
McCain passed away in August from glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer.
Trump’s comments on Tuesday come on the heels of a Twitter tirade against the late Senator, where Trump slammed him for his thumbs-down vote on an Obamacare repeal and his alleged role in sending the Steele Dossier to the FBI, which Trump incorrectly claimed happened before election day.
“Spreading the fake and totally discredited Dossier ‘is unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain.’ Ken Starr, Former Independent Counsel,” Trump tweeted on March 16. “He had far worse ‘stains’ than this, including thumbs down on repeal and replace after years of campaigning to repeal and replace!”
Trump’s dislike for McCain first began generating headlines during the run-up to his presidential campaign. During a 2015 appearance at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, Trump shocked listeners by mocking McCain’s history as a POW in Vietnam.
“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
His remarks were met with scattered boos.
“I think John McCain’s done very little for the veterans,” Trump later said. “I’m very disappointed in John McCain.”
In a follow-up statement sent to reporters, Trump, perhaps missing the irony in his own words, said McCain is “yet another all talk, no action politician who spends too much time on television and not enough time doing his job.”
Featured image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
