Vets handing out thousands of McCain shirts during Trump’s July 4 celebration

WFLA 8 On Your Side Staff

6 years ago

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. smiles on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013, during the committee's hearing to consider the authorization for use of military force in Syria. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A group of veterans says they will be trolling President Donald Trump during his Fourth of July bash with thousands of T-shirts featuring a Navy destroyer named after three generations of John McCains, including the late Arizona senator.

CBS News reports VoteVets, a liberal advocacy group made up of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, will descend on the National Mall and pass out 5,000 shirts showing the USS John McCain ahead of Trump’s “Salute to America” celebration.

“Today, we learned the news that Donald Trump is turning the national 4th of July celebration into a 2020 campaign event, complete with a ticketed VIP section for friends and supporters,” VoteVets told the network Sunday.

The shirts are a reference to Trump’s years-long feud with the late senator, which started in 2016 when McCain withdrew support for Trump after the release of the controversial “Access Hollywood” tape, in which the president is heard making vulgar comments.

Trump later said McCain, who spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was not a war hero because he was “captured.”

But their feud did not end with McCain’s death. In March, the president said he “wasn’t a fan” of McCain and didn’t get thanked for giving McCain “the kind of funeral that he wanted.”

Months later, naval officers were allegedly told to keep the the USS John McCain out of Mr. Trump’s view while the president was visiting Japan in May.

“It’s really a way to honor a family that, through multiple generations, has shown that the country is bigger than any one individual,” said Peter Kauffmann, vice chair of VoteVets and a Navy veteran said of the shirts. “July 4 has never been about who is president. The idea that Donald Trump can come in and sell VIP tickets so you can get good seats while the regular old people have to stay back from the area is antithetical to the whole idea of America.”