Former President Donald Trump’s indictment may be over, but the battle for the future of the Republican Party continues. CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Lee Cowan sat down with Cindy McCain – wife of late Republican Senator John McCain – to talk about what lies ahead.
‘I still suffer that a little bit of knowing you sometimes does not feel sufficient. You know, like, ‘Oh, who would listen to me, one thing,’ McCain reveals to Cowan, adding that she knows people listen to her, and she was “grateful” for that.
McCain is no stranger to the swing her surname brings into politics, as he appeared on the side of her husband during public gatherings to enthusiastic applause.
For more than nearly 40 years during the senator’s senate in Arizona, she was right on his side – including his two runs for the White House.
She lost her husband in 2018 to brain cancer. The man who was never president was regretted by several.
“I never thought I would say that, I miss the chaos in the house,” Cindy McCain said.
It was the ‘chaos’ when her husband ‘would walk in the door’ that McCain said she’s missed the most since she left.
“There was always action. It was always something,” she said. “I miss it. I miss the noise and … I miss his partnership. And his friendship. And his love. And it’s – you know, you just – it’s day by day.”
With her loss, it was said that the Senate also lost its conscience. But McCain is confident he will find his moral center again.
“Our side, it’s swung to the right. It will come back. It will come back, ‘she said.
McCain said to see how far that political swing has swung, look no further than the former president’s second indictment.
His acquittal on the charge that he incited the uprising at the Capitol was, according to her, proof that the GOP is in danger of becoming a party defined by the personality of one man.
“We have to overcome it. We have to. Not just as a party. But as a country. We can not allow it,” McCain said.
Asked if she thinks there will be a rift within the party, McCain answers ‘probably’.
“I know something is going to happen. I know so much, ‘she said. “Or our party is dead if we do not.”
And if her deceased husband was still alive for the uprising, McCain said he would “go into the hall and start fighting.”
“I mean, he absolutely did – he would not have hidden,” she laughed. “I guarantee he would not go to the safe room. I do not suggest that there is anything inappropriate about going to the safe room. But – only, he was a fighter. He would never have stood by it. “And he just didn’t let it happen. He just would not 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 instead vote for Joe Biden for president.
McCain looked back and said it was not a decision she took lightly.
“I thought about it a lot and prayed about it,” she said. “I could no longer sit back and shout like the others on the television set about what was going on, and just complain without doing anything. And I did the only thing I knew, and that was to support him.”
McCain also addressed rumors about a possible role in the Biden Administration – promised to “do what 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 not refuse if a president does – you know, say to you, ‘We need you,'” she said.
The McCain and Biden families have been friends for a long time. In 1979, the current first lady Jill Biden introduced John McCain to the then Cindy Lou Hensley.
“It was during a cocktail party in Hawaii, and I was with my parents. Jill is the one, ‘Why are you not going to talk to him?’ “I think he was looking at me. I did not pay any attention anyway,” she said.
John McCain sou later by mnr. Biden joins the Senate. Although their views on the passage on many matters were different, their friendship never doubted.
‘I saw my husband arguing and fighting with Joe Biden, with Ted Kennedy and others. But he did it for the good of the land. And that’s what we need to do now. We have to do this for the benefit of the country, ‘McCain said.
However, she said: “it was never personal.”
“They were best friends,” McCain said.
But her endorsement of the current president was personal to the Arizona GOP, which voted to condemn McCain for her apparent apostasy in supporting a Democrat.
“God, that’s ridiculous, I’m sorry,” McCain said of the move. “There are a lot of names in the Republican Party in Arizona that have been censored … I’m going to have T-shirts made with all the names on them.”
But she was not just the wife of the maverick – Cindy McCain had her own political life. She has a long history of traveling worldwide to promote human rights issues, and at home she has been a strong advocate for veterans and their families. In 2019, McCain was an observer of the election in Ukraine.
She currently chairs the board of trustees at the McCain Institute for International Leadership, where she has drawn much of her attention to initiatives to combat human trafficking.
However, McCain has never had the desire to run in the election office herself, and says she still does not.
The widow found her rhythm of life without a spouse, and enjoyed her grandchildren and spent time with the family.
During the pandemic, she and her daughter-in-law began creating recipes for what she calls ‘Quarantine Cocktails’ – posting them on Instagram where they became popular.
“It went up, I did not expect it,” McCain laughed.
One of the most popular was her mixed watermelon margarita:
- 1 cup Frozen fresh watermelon cubes
- 8-10oz tequila
- 4oz triple sec
- 4-6oz freshly squeezed lime juice
- 10 oz 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 roast about, despite everything – a stroke in 2004 leaves her mobility and her mood in a sticky rough shape.
To boost her mood, McCain returned to a love she had had for a long time – cars, especially racing cars – and learned lessons about the art of drift racing.
She said a 100% return to her beloved hobby contributed to her recovery.
“Celebrating something I could do, and learning it, it just meant everything to me,” she said.
McCain confronted her fear of saying the same thing. She bought a Cessna-182 in the 1980s and taught herself to fly it.
“It’s ridiculous for me to be afraid of flying. So I thought I would just do it to boost my confidence. And at least I would know what’s going on. And I loved it,” she said.
Sadness, however, proved that it is a more difficult obstacle to climb. She moved out of the Arizona home she and the senator shared, and bought a home in the Phoenix area where she grew up.
But Senator John McCain’s presence is still huge – pieces of his life are everywhere in Cindy McCain’s new home. By the fire are the shoes he wore during his first campaign for Congress in 1982, which made McCain bronze.
‘The hot company wrote me back and said’ are you sure you want to do these shoes? ” Lag McCain. ” We usually got these baby 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 politics are rooted in family, she says, which is still the most important.
And she wants to continue her legacy – something McCain said she should do.
“It’s the right thing to do. And maybe for my grandchildren. You know, it’s part of it, too,” she said. “I want them to know him. Even though they never did, they will never do it. I want them to know him. ‘
The McCain Institute website contains more information about Cindy McCain’s work, including the latest initiative, REAL friends not, 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 pose online.”