At a town hall event in Lakeville, Minnesota, a woman in the
audience made a false and offensive claim about Obama.
Without hesitation, McCain took the microphone from her.
“No, ma’am,” he responded. “He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that just I
just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what
the campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab].”
At the same event, another supporter expressed fear about
Obama becoming president. McCain again stood firm. “He is a decent person and a
person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States,”
he assured the crowd.
Many in the audience were not happy with his defense of
Obama. Reports from the time say some people booed and called Obama a “liar”
and a “terrorist.” But McCain refused to back down.
“I want to fight, and I will fight,” he said. “But I will be
respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments, and I will respect
him.”
At the time, a reporter for WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina was half-right upon writing "it's hard to see how his current appearance today dosn't cut against him.... But he was boxed in and had no choice but to do this."
It did cut against McCain. However, unless the mood in the Republican Party virtually reversed itself- and it didn't- between that point and Donald Trump's presidential run eight years later, Senator McCain did have the choice not to do that.
Donald Trump's words and actions did change everything, not only in politics, but in this country generally. Nonetheless, he less persuaded conservatives and Republicans than he did give license for their worst selves to manifest themselves.
The next time Republicans accuse Democrats of "violent rhetoric," Here's ONE of MANY videos as proof that they are full of shit.
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) September 12, 2026
Here's sitting US Senator Ted Cruz, doing a call-and-response with every response saying "He should be shot!"
ZERO PUSHBACK.pic.twitter.com/JEedZDljqk
HOLY SHIT -- Tapper plays Mike Johnson footage of Republican candidate Brandon Herrera describing moms as "cum trophies," mentions he called Nazi machine guns "the original ghetto blasters," and asks Johnson how he can support him. Johnson says "Herrera has run a very effective… pic.twitter.com/xfz2n8ZzmJ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 13, 2026
Donald Trump called former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman "that dog" and 1996 Miss Universe winner "Miss Piggy." More recently, he targeted New York Times reporter Katie Rogers as "ugly, both inside and out" and told Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey "Quiet. Quiet, piggy."
Obviously, these are not the only sewer-level insults by Trump against women, just as he has ridiculed others on racial or other putrid grounds. And just as obviously, Ted Cruz has remained silent about all of these, aside from declaring "my favorite attribute about Donald Trump is the guy has cast iron balls at a level that there's no parallel in history." Speaker Johnson and most other Republicans have displayed nearly as much cowardice. John McCain, war hero and defender of Barack Obama against a racially offensive remark, is dead, as is any sense of decency or courage in the Republican Party.
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