The process of ousting former President Donald Trump may be over, but the fight for the future of the Republican Party continues. CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Lee Cowan sat down with Cindy McCain – the wife of late Republican Sen. John McCain – to talk about what’s next.
“I still suffer from some of you know, sometimes you don’t feel right. You know, like, ‘Oh, who’s listening to me, kind of,'” McCain told Cowan, adding that he knew people listened to her and was “grateful. ” for this.
McCain is no stranger to the influence her family name brings to politics after appearing with her husband in public engagements to enthusiastic applause.
For more than 40 years during Senator Arizona’s public service life, she has been right next to him – including his two White House nominations.
She lost her husband in 2018 to brain cancer. The man who was never president was hurt by many.
“I never thought I’d say that, I miss the chaos in the house,” Cindy McCain said.
It was the “chaos” when her husband “came in the door” that McCain said he missed the most since his death.
“There’s always been action. It’s always been something,” she said. “It simply came to our notice then. I miss the hustle and bustle and … I miss his partnership. And his friendship. And for his love. And it is – you know, just you – it’s day to day. “
With her loss, it was said that the Senate also lost consciousness. But McCain is confident he will find his moral center again.
“Our side is turned to the right. It will turn. It will turn,” she said.
To see how far that political pendulum has oscillated, McCain said, look no further than the second term of the former president.
Her acquittal on the charge of inciting insurrection at the Capitol was proof, she says, that the GOP risks becoming a one-man party.
“We have to overcome this. We have to. Not just as a party. But as a country. We can’t afford this,” McCain said.
Asked if she thought there would be a split within the party, McCain said “probably.”
“I know something is going to happen. I know so much,” she 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 “enter the hall and start fighting.”
“I mean, he absolutely – he wouldn’t have hidden,” she laughed. “I guarantee he wouldn’t have gone to the safe room. I’m not suggesting that there’s anything wrong with going to the safe room. But – he was simply a fighter. He would never have stood up and let go. that would happen. He just wouldn’t have done it. “
A few months before the attack, Cindy McCain publicly urged her Republican colleagues to turn their backs on the party’s Trump wing – and vote for Joe Biden for president.
Looking back, McCain said it was not an easy decision.
“I thought about it a lot and prayed for it,” she said. “I couldn’t sit and scream on TV like everyone else, about what was happening, and complain without doing anything. And so I did the only thing I knew and that supported him.”
McCain also addressed rumors about a possible role in Biden Administration – promising “to do whatever the president wants me 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 tells you, “We need you,” she said.
The McCain and Biden families have been friends for a long time. In 1979, now First Lady Jill Biden introduced John McCain to Cindy Lou Hensley.
“He went to a cocktail party in Hawaii and I was with my parents. Jill is the one – “Why don’t you go and talk to him? “I guess he was looking at me. Anyway, I was never careful, “she said.
John McCain would later join Mr. Biden in the Senate. Although their vision along the corridor was different in many ways, their friendship never faltered.
“I watched my husband quarrel and fight Joe Biden, 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,” McCain said. .
However, she said, “it was never personal.”
“They were best friends,” McCain said.
But her approval for the now president was personal to the Arizona GOP, which voted to censure McCain for her apparent failure to support a Democrat.
“God, it’s funny, I’m sorry,” McCain said of the move. “There are a lot of names in the Arizona Republican Party that have been censored … I’ll have T-shirts made with all the names on it.”
However, she was not just 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.
She is currently chairman of the board of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, where she has focused on anti-trafficking initiatives.
However, McCain never had the desire to run for office and says she still doesn’t.
The widow found the rhythm of her life without a husband, taking joy in her grandchildren and spending time with her family.
During the pandemic, she and her daughter-in-law started creating recipes for what she calls “Quarantine Cocktails” – and posted them on Instagram where they became popular.
“It took off, I didn’t expect that,” McCain laughed.
One of the most popular was her margarita mixed with watermelon:
- 1 cup Freshly frozen watermelon cubes
- 8-10oz tequila
- 4oz triple sec
- 4-6oz of freshly squeezed lime juice
- 10oz fresh watermelon juice
- fresh watermelon triangle (for garnish)
Lee Cowan’s review – “It’s strong, but it’s good!”
Cindy McCain has a lot to fry, in spite of everyone – a stroke in 2004 left both her mobility and her spirits in a rather harsh shape.
To increase his spirit, McCain returned to a love he had for a long time – cars, racing cars in particular – and took lessons on the art of drift racing.
She said returning to her “100%” hobby lover helped her recover.
“Celebrating something I could do and just learning – it meant everything to me,” she said.
McCain faced the fear of saying the same thing. She bought a Cessna-182 in the 1980s and learned to drive it herself.
“It’s ridiculous for me to hope for flight. So I thought I’d do this just to build my confidence. And at least I’ll know what’s going on. And I’m done loving him,” he said. she.
However, the pain proved to be a more difficult obstacle to climb. She moved out of the house in Arizona that she and the senator had shared and bought a house in the Phoenix neighborhood, where she grew up.
But Senator John McCain’s presence is still looming – pieces of his life are everywhere in Cindy McCain’s new home. Next to the fire are the shoes he wore in his first campaign for Congress in 1982, which McCain had tanned.
“The tanning company wrote back to me and said, ‘Are you sure you want to make these shoes?’ McCain laughed. “We usually have these children’s shoes!” “And I said no, I want them! Look at the holes and everything! “
John McCain was a war hero and a statesman – and for that, history will record his achievements.
But for Cindy McCain, it’s more personal. His policy was rooted in the family, she says, which matters most.
And she’s looking to continue her legacy – something McCain said she has to do.
“It’s the right thing to do. And maybe for my grandchildren. You know, that’s part of that, too,” she said. “I want them to know him. Even if they never did, they will never do it, I would like them to know him.”
The McCain Institute website contains more information about Cindy McCain’s work, including the latest initiative, REAL friends don’t, aimed at raising “awareness and empowerment of parents, carers and young people aged 8 to 16 about online safety and the risks that young people may face online”.