It's On; Trump Courts Arizona Treasurer to Primary McCain

No, seriously, I think he’s just blowing smoke, although I’ll repeat what I said yesterday. Few things could endear Trump to a wider swath of the Republican base more quickly than a determined effort to oust the old amnesty shill from the Senate once and for all. He’s selling himself as the guy who terrifies the GOP establishment. Here’s his chance to prove it. Recruit and bankroll a credible Senate challenger for the party’s 2008 nominee, a centrist dinosaur who’s creeping up on 30 years in the Senate and who wants six more despite approaching his 80th birthday.

Trump and [Arizona treasurer Jeff] DeWit met privately in Phoenix July 11 aboard Trump’s Boeing 757. During the conversation, which was observed by The Washington Post, Trump and DeWit discussed McCain and what it would take it make the race competitive.

“You really should think about doing it,” Trump told DeWit, who nodded as he sat inches from Trump in the cream-colored cabin…

But DeWit told Trump that his friend, state Sen. Kelli Ward, is already running against McCain, making his own entry unlikely unless circumstances changed. Trump said he understood DeWit’s position but told him it’d be smart to leave his options open and think seriously about a bid…

In an e-mail Friday, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Trump “has not spoken to any other” Arizona Republicans about possibly running against the 78-year-old senator.

That sounds like small talk made by a guy who doesn’t know the Arizona scene and was eager to flatter a local pol who’d come out to meet him, not a serious attempt to recruit DeWit. The fact that WaPo watched it happen makes it even more dubious. Trump probably sensed, correctly, that it’d make for good buzz among grassroots righties for a reporter to conveniently overhear him encouraging a primary challenge to McCain. Maybe McCain got wind of it too before today’s WaPo story and that’s why he made a point of insulting Trump and “the crazies” back home in an interview with the New Yorker. So here’s a follow-up idea for Trump: Cut a check to Ward’s Super PAC (does she have one yet?) for $1 million and make a statement to the effect that the process of rebuilding America begins with clearing out the dead wood in Congress. Or, if Ward’s too much of a longshot, call a presser and announce that you’re prepared to commit, say, $10 million to a more serious challenger for McCain if anyone’s willing to step forward. Even if no one does, it’s dynamite grassroots PR for Trump.

Here’s something to sweeten the pot. From McCain’s former speechwriter and right-hand man, Mark Salter:

Donald Trump isn’t just an embarrassment to the Republican Party, or to whatever percentage of unserious self-identified Republicans say they would vote for him. He’s an embarrassment to the country. He possesses all the traits snobbish foreigners deride Americans for. He’s bumptious, narcissistic, obtuse and full of it. You’d think he was a Brit actor playing an American on the BBC. GOP presidential candidates who can’t find the nerve to criticize the guy ought to grow a pair. You’ll have done America a good turn, and you’ll feel better about yourself.

Below you’ll find Trump dumping on McCain this a.m. on “Morning Joe.” Skip to 6:15 for the key bit, which includes him laughing at the fact that McCain finished near the bottom of his class at Annapolis. Right, and … then he went on to become a war hero by enduring the Hanoi Hilton while Trump was back in New York. Not an effective line of attack. Especially since Trump called McCain a “very, very bright guy” and a “quality human being” during his run for president in 2008. Exit question: Isn’t there an obvious, sensational choice to primary McCain in Arizona who’d match up perfectly with Trump thematically? Come on. It’d be the primary of the century.

For whomever runs against him:
The True Military Record of John McCain Written by an Active Marine
Uncategorized by admin

THE TRUE MILITARY RECORD OF JOHN MCCAIN WRITTEN BY AN ACTIVE MARINE.
9/03/08

McCain has never really earned anything. He is from a wealth pampered background and not fit to lead this nation.

A “war hero” doesn’t finished 894th out of 899 and still get stationed at a Navy champagne unit and promoted ahead of all but two of his 898 other classmates.

A “war hero” doesn’t crash three U.S. Navy jets out of sheer incompetence and ineptitude, including two during non-combat training sessions.

A “war hero” doesn’t get written up on drunk-and-disorderly, fraternization, disobeying orders, and insubordination charges more than two dozen times in less than three years.
A “war hero” doesn’t get promoted to squadron commander of the air field named after his own grandfather immediately after crashing his third airplane. A “war hero” doesn’t have all the military records that cover his time in Vietnam and all disciplinary actions against him censored and sealed “as a matte r of national security.” A “war hero” doesn’t get 28 medals awarded all after-the-fact “for bravery” for no other reason than being shot down and captured and then go on a celebrity public relations tour because he’s the son of two acclaimed Navy admirals. A “war hero” doesn’t repeatedly cheat on the wife who’s back in the states waiting for him, and then cheat on her more when he returns to the states, and then divorce and abandon her.
A “war hero” doesn’t systematically vote against every single pay and benefit increase for military and veterans throughout his entire political career, all the while claiming to be “the soldier’s Congressman,” and then take credit for the passage of a G.I. benefits bill he that voted AGAINST. A “war hero” McCain III lost jet number one in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while practicing landings. He was knocked unconscious by the impact coming to as the plane settled to the bottom. McCain’s second crash occurred while he was deployed in the Mediterranean. “Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula,” Timberg wrote, “he took out some power lines [reminiscent of the 1998 incident in which a Marine Corps jet sliced through the cables of a gondola at an Italian ski resort, killing 20] which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.”
McCain’s third crash three occurred when he was returning from flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. Timberg reported that McCain radioed, “I’ve got a flameout” and went through standard relight procedures three times before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain landed on a deserted beach moments before the plane slammed into a clump of trees. McCain’s fifth loss happened during his 23rd mission over North Vietnam on Oct. 26, 1967, when McCain’s A-4 Skyhawk was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. McCain ejected from the plane breaking both arms an d a leg in the process and subsequently parachuted into Truc Bach Lake near Hanoi. For 23 combat missions (an estimated 20 hours over enemy territory), the U.S. Navy awarded McCain a Silver Star, a Legion of Merit for Valor, a Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, two Commendation medals plus two Purple Hearts and a dozen service medals. “McCain had roughly 20 hours in combat,” explains Bill Bell, a veteran of Vietnam and former chief of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA Affairs — the first official U.S. representative in Vietnam since the 1973 fall of Saigon. “Since McCain got 28 medals,” Bell continues, “that equals out to about a medal-and-a-half for each hour he spent in combat. There were infantry guys — grunts on the ground — who had more than 7,000 hours in combat and I can tell you that there were times and situations where I’m sure a prison cell would have looked pretty good to them by comparison
The question really is how many guys got that number of medals for not being shot down.” For years, McCain has been an unchecked master at manipulating an overly friendly and biased news media. The former POW turned Congressman, turned U.S. Senator, has managed to gloss over his failures as a pilot by exaggerating his military service and lying about his feats of heroism. McCain has sprouted a halo and wings to become America’s POW-hero presidential candidate.
This article was written by an active, unnamed Marine. It was published by Gale Toensing founder of the Corner Report.com and she sent it to me. It is a true account of McCain’s real war record and evidence of his lack of fitness for the office of President.

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