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The Senate is debating the Defense Authorization Bill, a bill to provide the annual legislation to map out defense spending priorities for the year, and is going to consider an idea that would hurt national security. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is pushing an earmark for Elon Musk that would make him, effectively, the sole distributor of rockets to launch new satellites into space. In a battle between two potential defense contractors, McCain is trying to pass an amendment that would prevent the United Launch Alliance from continuing to provide rockets so that his pal Musk can take over that contract.

Ted Cruz’s first Senate speech since he dropped his presidential bid led to a testy exchange with an old nemesis, the GOP’s 2008 nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain. McCain called Cruz a “wacko bird” early in the Texan’s tenure. He recently swatted away as ridiculous the idea that he might welcome Cruz’s support in his own re-election campaign. And on Tuesday, McCain accused Cruz of looking for a pretext to distance himself from a bipartisan defense bill that McCain has worked on for months and of which he was proud, and said he’d be much more open to Cruz’s ideas...

At age 79, running what may be his last campaign, Sen. John McCain finds himself on treacherous terrain. A household name in Arizona and still beloved by many, the Republican is also confronting hostile and unpredictable forces this election year: The swirling voter anger that propelled Donald Trump to the brink of the GOP presidential nomination, and the resulting backlash from other groups, particularly Latinos, a growing force in his state. The combination has left McCain to grasp for answers about his own political fortunes as he seeks a sixth term, and has set up what may be his toughest...

Allegheny College this week will award Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. John McCain Prizes for Civility in Public Life in a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Tuesday's event will include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and Allegheny College President James H. Mullen Jr. "These two political giants – one from the left and one from the right – have demonstrated throughout the course of their distinguished careers the benefits of civil behavior, and who showed remarkable moments of civility during recent presidential campaigns," the college said in a statement when the announcement was initially made in April.

Most of the time, major political figures try to stay on the good side of the nation’s leading veterans’ organizations, but Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is comfortable going in a different direction. The Republican senator appeared on his daughter’s radio show late last week – just a few days before Memorial Day – and Meghan McCain asked about the need for improvements in the VA system. The GOP lawmaker, facing a tough re-election fight this year, didn’t hold back. JOHN MCCAIN: I blame some of the old veterans’ service organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American...

Bob Dole encouraged fellow Republicans Saturday to back Donald Trump and suggested the presumptive GOP nominee select Newt Gingrich as his running mate. In an interview with CNN's Ana Cabrera, Dole -- the 1996 Republican nominee who said he spoke with Trump last week -- also suggested Trump apologize to Arizona Sen. John McCain and New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez for disparaging comments he's made about them in the past. "I have been a Republican all my life," said Dole, who endorsed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at one point during the 2016 primary fight but has since backed Trump....

Speaking in Washington, the former Republican presidential nominee pushed back at Trump’s criticism of Nato by praising the alliance’s response to 9/11 Senator John McCain, the former Republican presidential nominee, has taken a swipe at Donald Trump’s hostility to Nato by praising the alliance’s response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “I agree with him to this extent, that our Nato allies should pay more and I’ve been urging all of that, all of us have, for years and years. But let’s not forget that after 9/11, the United States of America was attacked, Europeans weren’t attacked, and yet we invoked...

Fox News’ Outnumbered co-host Meghan McCain predicts that GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump will see a surge of support from younger female voters ahead of November’s election. “I actually think millennial women are gonna flock to [Trump],” McCain said during Wednesday’s episode of Outnumbered. “Especially after all the things about Bill Clinton and his past start coming up, and you know Donald Trump is gonna go there, and he’s gonna go there hard.”

Arizona GOP Senator John McCain’s reelection campaign is lashing out with negative attacks against his Republican primary opponent, State Senator Dr. Kelli Ward, as new polling shows trouble for McCain’s attempt for a sixth Senate term. A new poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows Dr. Ward and Senator McCain tied at 41 percent in a head-to-head matchup. The poll has even more bad news for McCain, showing the aging Senator with just a 35 percent approval among Republican primary voters. With such high negatives, it’s no surprise McCain’s campaign would shift from ignoring Ward to attacking her. Their goal,...

PPP's new Arizona poll finds that John McCain has a negative approval rating with Republican primary voters, and is at pretty serious risk of losing nomination for another term. Only 35% of GOP voters approve of the job McCain is doing to 50% who disapprove. He's in particularly poor standing with conservative voters. Among 'somewhat conservative' voters his approval spread is 33/52, and among 'very conservative' voters it drops all the way down to 18/67.

Boehner's scenario: Clinton may drop out, clear way for Biden The Daily Briefing By John T. Bennett CQ-Roll Call • Sunday May 15, 2016 8:53 PM Vice President Joe Biden and former House Speaker John Boehner share a moment as they take the stage for the University of Notre Dame commencement ceremony. Both were on hand Sunday to receive the Laetare Medal. Out with Hillary Clinton. In with Vice President Joe Biden. At least that’s what former House Speaker John A. Boehner thinks could happen should federal prosecutors opt to slap criminal charges on the former secretary of state over...

It is happening ya’ll. Paul Ryan is backing down, but he can’t show it fully yet. He’s trying to find the right station to get on the Trump Train from. “With that focus, we had a great conversation this morning. While we were honest about our few differences, we recognize that there are also many important areas of common ground,” Trump and Ryan said. “We will be having additional discussions, but remain confident there’s a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall, and we are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal. “This was our...

Pregnant, female, Navy SEALs was something many of us used to joke about as a way of exaggerating the absurd social engineering in the military. Yet, placing women in special operations and direct combat units has now become a reality under the Obama-led Pentagon. Sadly, not only have Republicans like John McCain refused to use their perches on the Armed Services Committees in the House and Senate to block this social engineering, they are now codifying it with a provision that could lead to a mandatory draft of all women. Earlier this week, I noted that the final House version...

Sen. Lindsey Graham paused for five full seconds and stumbled over his words pondering the question: When is the last time he split with fellow Republican Sen. John McCain on a major issue? “I don’t know, let me think about it,” Graham (S.C.) finally said of his closest Senate friend. “There have been several. I just can’t recall right now, right off the top of my head.” Yet that’s what has happened in the wake of Donald Trump’s ascendancy to presumptive Republican nominee for president. In the Republican civil war over Trump, this is perhaps the most glaring example of...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, broke Sunday with GOP colleagues including ally Lindsey Graham by suggesting Republicans rally behind Donald Trump. "You have to listen to people that have chosen the nominee of our Republican Party," the Arizona senator and 2008 GOP nominee said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. "I think it would be foolish to ignore them." McCain recently said privately that with Trump as the GOP's nominee, his re-election chances this year in Arizona are in danger. "This may be the race of my life," McCain said at an Arizona fundraiser in April.

Sen. John McCain is chastising GOP leaders for failing to embrace Donald Trump as the choice of millions of voters, laying out his most extensive views to date about Trump at the top of the ticket. He's also repudiating some of the presumptive nominee's comments -- particularly about prisoners of war. In a wide-ranging "State of the Union" interview in his campaign office in Phoenix, McCain criticized party leaders who are reluctant to back Trump, saying they are "out of step" with voters who have chosen the controversial businessman as the GOP standard-bearer. He defended Trump for being a strong...

Sen. John McCain reflected on his 2008 run with Sarah Palin: "The only thing I will ever resent about my presidential campaign is her treatment by the media. It was disgraceful."

No dynamic better embodies the internal conflict roiling the Republican Party today than the squeeze Trump is putting on McCain, the original independent and maverick of the party. On a larger scale, nobody has been a more consistent voice on American foreign policy for the GOP than McCain, whose views on conflict, diplomacy, and America's role in the world Trump has largely rejected. In McCain's home state of Arizona, the latest Rocky Mountain Poll shows Kirkpatrick tied with McCain at 42 percent, with 16 percent of voters still undecided. But the same poll shows the biggest hurdle between McCain and...

Donald Trump’s coronation as the GOP nominee will present plenty of opportunities for Republican amnesia and short-sightedness. The easiest thing to do, if you’re a conservative Republican, is to dismiss Trump as an aberration, as if his candidacy emerged out of a whirlwind. But that’s the work of revisionist historians, not honest observers of the last decade of Republican politics. Consider this recent tweet by Meghan McCain, the daughter of John McCain and now a commentator for Fox News: I hope history remembers those who gave up their conservative principles for the cult of personality and celebrity. And those who...

Publicly, John McCain insists Donald Trump will have a negligible effect on his campaign for reelection. But behind closed doors at a fundraiser in Arizona last month, the Republican senator and two-time presidential hopeful offered a far more dire assessment to his supporters. “If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life,” McCain said, according to a recording of the event obtained by POLITICO. “If you listen or watch Hispanic media in the state...