The process of ousting former President Donald Trump may end, but the fight for the future of the Republican party continues. CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Lee Cowan sat down with Cindy McCain – wife of late Republican Sen. John McCain – to talk about what awaits us.
“I still suffer a little bit from what you know, sometimes I don’t feel right. You know, like, ‘Oh, who’s listening to me, a little bit,'” McCain revealed to Cowan, adding that he knew people listened to him and she was “grateful.”
McCain is no stranger to the influence of her last name in politics, as she appeared alongside her husband in public engagements with enthusiastic applause.
For more than nearly 40 years during the Arizona senator’s public service life, he stood by her side, including his two White House nominations.
He lost her husband in 2018 to brain cancer. The man who was never president was cried by several.
“I never thought I would say that, I miss the chaos of the house,” Cindy McCain said.
It was the “chaos” when her husband “would walk in the door” that McCain said he missed the most since his passing.
“There were always actions. It was always something,” he said. “So I miss him. I miss the commotion and … I miss his partner. And his friendship. And his love. And it’s – you know, just – it’s day to day.”
With his loss, it was said that the Senate also lost consciousness. But McCain is confident he will find his moral center again.
“Our side has turned right. It will come back. It will come back,” he said.
To see how much this political pendulum has swung, McCain said, look no further than the former president’s second removal trial.
Her acquittal for the charge of inciting the insurrection at the Capitol was proof, according to her, that the Republican Party is in danger of becoming a party defined by the personality of a single man.
“We have to overcome it. We have to do it. Not just as a party, but as a country. We can’t afford it,” McCain said.
Asked if she thought there would be a split within the party, McCain replied “probably.”
“I know something will happen. I know a lot about it,” he said. “Or our party is dead if we don’t.”
And if her late husband was still alive for the insurrection, McCain said he would have “entered the lobby and started fighting.”
“I mean, he absolutely wouldn’t have gone into hiding,” he laughed. “I guarantee I wouldn’t have gone to the safe. I’m not suggesting that there was anything wrong with going to the safe. But I was just a fighter. I would never have been by his side and let that happen. I just wouldn’t have done it. “.
Months before the attack, Cindy McCain publicly urged her fellow Republicans to turn their backs on the party’s Trump wing and vote for Joe Biden as president.
Looking back, McCain said it wasn’t a decision he made lightly.
“I thought about it a lot and prayed for it,” he said. “I could no longer sit and yell at the TV like everyone else, about what was going on, and just complain without doing anything. And so I did all I knew, and that was to support him.”
McCain also addressed rumors about a possible role in the Biden Administration – promising to “do whatever the president wants him to do.”
“If he comes back and suggests, ‘Look, we need you here, I want you to do something.'” Of course I would. You can’t refuse, you know, when a president does, you know, he says, “We need you,” he said.
The McCain and Biden families have been friends for a long time. In 1979, current First Lady Jill Biden introduced John McCain to then-Cindy Lou Hensley.
“He was at a cocktail party in Hawaii and I was with my parents. Jill is the one, ‘Why don’t you talk to him and talk to him?’ “I guess he was looking my way. Anyway, he wasn’t paying any attention to me,” he said.
John McCain would later join Mr. Biden in the Senate. Although their vision across the aisle was different on many issues, their friendship never wavered.
“I saw my husband arguing and fighting with Joe Biden, with Ted Kennedy and others. But he did it for the good of the country. And that’s what we have to do now. We have to do it for the good of the country,” she said. McCain.
However, he said, “it was never personal.”
“They were best friends,” McCain said.
But his support for the now president was personal to the Arizona Republican Party, which voted to censure McCain for his apparent defection in supporting a Democrat.
“God, it’s laughable, I’m sorry,” McCain said of the move. “There are a lot of names in the Arizona Republican Party that have been censored … I’m going to make t-shirts with all the names.”
But not only was she the maverick’s wife, Cindy McCain had a political life of her own. She has a long history of traveling the world to promote human rights issues and at home, she has been a strong advocate for veterans and their families. In 2019, McCain was an election observer in Ukraine.
He currently chairs the board of directors of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, where he has focused much of his attention on initiatives to combat human trafficking.
Still, McCain has never had any desire to run for office and says he still doesn’t.
The widow has found her rhythm of life without a spouse, rejoices in the grandchildren and spends time with the family.
During the pandemic, she and her daughter-in-law have started creating recipes for what she calls “Quarantine Cocktails” – and posted them on Instagram where they have become popular.
“It came out, I didn’t expect it,” McCain laughed.
One of the most popular was its mixed watermelon daisy:
- 1 cup frozen fresh watermelon cubes
- 8-10oz tequila
- 4 oz triple sec
- 4-6 oz of fresh squeezed lime juice
- 10 oz of fresh watermelon juice
- fresh watermelon triangle (to garnish)
Lee Cowan review: “It’s strong, but it’s okay!”
Cindy McCain has a lot to offer, though: a stroke in 2004 left her mobility and spirits in a rather rough shape.
To boost his spirits, McCain returned to a love he had had for a long time (especially cars, race cars) and took lessons on the art of drift racing.
He said the return to his beloved “100%” hobby contributed to his recovery.
“Celebrating something I could do and learn, it just meant everything,” he said.
McCain faced his fear of saying the same thing. She bought a Cessna-182 in the 1980s and learned to fly it herself.
“It’s ridiculous that I’m afraid to fly. So I thought I’d do this to increase my confidence. And at least I’ll know what’s going on. And I ended up loving myself,” he said.
Pain, however, has proven to be a harder obstacle to climbing. She moved out of the Arizona house she and the senator had shared and bought a house in the Phoenix neighborhood where she grew up.
But the presence of Senator John McCain still carries great weight: bits of his life are found in Cindy McCain’s entire new home. Next to the fire are the shoes he wore during his first campaign in Congress in 1982, which McCain had tanned.
“The tanner company responded to me and said,‘ Are you sure you want to make these shoes? McCain laughed. “We usually have these baby shoes!” And I said, “No, I want them!” Look at the holes and all! “
John McCain was a war hero and a statesman, and for that, history will record his successes.
But for Cindy McCain it’s more personal. Her policy had its roots in the family, she said, which matters even more.
And she wants to continue her legacy, which McCain said she had to do.
“It’s right. And maybe for my grandchildren. You know, that’s part of that, too,” he said. “I want them to know him. Even though they never did, they would never want it, I would want them to know him.”
The McCain Institute website has more information on Cindy McCain’s work, including the latest initiative. REAL friends don’t, aimed at “raising awareness and empowering parents, caregivers and young people aged 8 to 16 about online safety and the risks young people may face online”.