TUCSON, Ariz. – Former President Barack Obama on Friday contrasted the character of former President Donald Trump with that of the late Senator John McCain during a packed rally at the University of Arizona.
Obama, who ran against McCain in 2008 in his successful bid for the White House, offered only kind words for his former political foe during his remarks Friday on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign.
“As I am here in Tucson, I think of my friend, John McCain,” Obama said, speaking to several thousand Arizonans.
“I don’t want to over-romanticize our relationship,” Obama continued, drawing laughter from the crowd. ‘But you know what? He understood that some values transcend party. He believed in fair arguments and hearing other people’s opinions. He did not demonize his political opponents.”
Obama also praised McCain for defending him during the 2008 election, when a woman told McCain during a town hall in Lakeville, Minnesota, that she did not trust Obama and called him an “Arab.”
“No, ma’am, he’s a decent family man, a citizen, with whom I happen to have disagreements on fundamental issues,” McCain replied to the voter, drawing applause from the crowd.
“One of the most disturbing things about this election and Donald Trump’s rise in politics is how we seem to have cast aside the values that people like John McCain stood for,” Obama said before criticizing Trump.
“When Donald Trump lies or cheats or bullies or shows total disregard for our Constitution, when he calls service members like John McCain losers because they died in combat or were captured… people make excuses for it, that it’s okay as long as their party wins, Obama said.
McCain was captured and tortured during the Vietnam conflict. McCains’ service earned him two Purple Hearts, along with more than a dozen other military awards. He subsequently represented the state for decades, both in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
During his 2015 presidential campaign in Ames, Iowa, Trump called McCain a “loser” in reference to his defeat by Obama before adding, “He’s not a war hero… he was a war hero because he was captured.”
Trump would win Arizona in his first bid for president in 2016, but he would become the first Republican to lose the southwestern state in 2020 since Bill Clinton won it as a Democrat in 1996.
Since Trump’s disparaging comments, a new voting bloc has emerged in Arizona known as “McCain Republicans.” In 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris attempted to court the McCain wing of the Arizona Republican Party and compliment him on the trajectory.
At a campaign rally in Chandler, Arizona, earlier this month, Harris recalled that McCain saved the Affordable Care Act in a historic vote.
“It took one more vote to keep it intact, and that vote belonged to the late, great John McCain,” Harris said in suburban Phoenix. “A great American, a war hero: John McCain. And I will never forget that night.”
It was praise Obama repeated Friday as the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as “Obamacare,” remains in place due to McCain’s refusal to vote to repeal it.
“Donald Trump has spent his entire presidency trying to dismantle it,” Obama said.
“Thanks to John McCain, he didn’t do it,” he added to thunderous applause.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
