Meghan McCain blasts the 2024 GOP field, forgetting her dad also had a Trump problem

Meghan McCain is appalled that the 2024 Republican field for the White House won’t attack Donald Trump.

“The absolute dumbest part of this election is all of the GOP candidates running for President who aren’t actually running against Trump,” she tweeted on July 23.

“Aside from (former N.J. Gov. Chris) Christie, they all are just dancing around Trump or giving him props. Just drop out and endorse him if you think Trump is so great.”

I think McCain understands the problem better than she lets on.

She knows why those Republicans demur.

John McCain refused to disavow Trump

She knows because she is the McCain child who most loves politics.

She knows because she loved her father and often talked politics with him.

There is no way she avoided talking to him about the Trump problem when it confronted John McCain in Arizona’s 2016 election for U.S. Senate.

Back then, John McCain wasn’t running against Donald Trump; nonetheless, he had the Trump problem. So afflicted, he was under siege from Democrats and left-wing commentators.

The reason? He wouldn’t disavow Trump.

He said he supported 'the nominee'

By then Trump had already crossed a number of red lines in American politics, encouraging violence on the campaign trail, stereotyping Latin American immigrants and insulting a Gold Star family who had lost a son in the Iraq War.

To add further insult, Trump had personally attacked McCain.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015 of McCain’s time in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.” “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Nonetheless, McCain would not disown Trump. He stood half-heartedly by the man he would not call by name: “I support the nominee of the party.”

As Trump continued to violate the rules of conduct, McCain would criticize him, but then, once again, affirm his support for “the nominee.”

McCain was attacked for later cutting ties

Once more, Trump would tweet something stupid, and the press would pounce on McCain. Eventually the cycle turned to farce.

McCain grew testy: “I’ve said everything I have to say about Trump. What more do you want me to say? You want me to repeat myself over and over again?”

Finally, in October 2017, the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape surfaced of Donald Trump talking like a foul-mouthed frat-boy on a bender, and McCain could no longer stand pat.

He disavowed Trump.

But his Democratic opponent used his slow-motion divorce from “the nominee” as a whipping post.

U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick cut an ad saying, “The John McCain I once voted for wouldn’t have chosen Sarah Palin or endorsed Trump. John’s changed. He cares only about his reelection.”

There's no playbook for defeating Trump

The problem today’s GOP field faces is roughly the same problem John McCain faced in 2016.

They need Trump voters to win the election.

As we all know by now, Trump is no ordinary politician. He’s a freak of nature. The 100-year-flood.

There is no playbook to defeat a politician who gets twice impeached, loses a general election, faces multiple felony indictments and still commands nearly 70% support from GOP voters, according to an April NBC News poll.

Ron DeSantis came the closest to challenging Trump’s dominance, and then the feds raided Mar-a-Lago.

It’s been downhill ever since.

DeSantis is fighting 3 fronts. So did McCain

DeSantis has gone through the refiner’s fire that all candidates who come within striking distance of the White House must endure. He’s fighting a three-front war against Trump, the Democrats and the media.

McCain went through this same refiner’s fire the first time he ran for president in 1999.

Another view: How not-so-powerful Arizonans could take down Trump

As he closed in on George W. Bush, the news broke that Arizona’s Republican governor Jane Hull would be endorsing Bush, because the homegrown McCain has a bad temper (Doesn’t that sound quaint in the Trump era?).

Interactions with Sen. McCain are “not particularly warm,” Hull said as she feigned holding a telephone receiver from her ear. “You’ve got to hold it out there for a while, and let him calm down,” she said. “We all have our faults, and it’s something that John has to keep control of.”

Consider this, Meghan, when you run

Even his former administrative aide, Grant Woods, piled on, saying McCain had been “heavy-handed.”

“People come away with great respect and admiration for him. But it’s kind of ridiculous to gloss over big flaws and pretend they don’t exist. John McCain likes being the maverick, but does not tolerate mavericks well. Governor Hull was not willing to be told how to do her job.”

Soon McCain would fall.

But he would be back in 2008. Where he confronted another force of nature, another 100-year-event — Barack Obama.

As John McCain used to say, it’s one thing to kibbitz from the sidelines. It’s another to stand in the ring.

Be grateful, Meghan McCain, that when you finally step in that ring — which I believe you will — the Trump problem will be history.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Meghan McCain blasts GOP, forgetting her dad had a Trump problem