Meghan McCain blasts GOP candidates for not attacking Trump. Did she forget about her dad?

Meghan McCain is appalled that the 2024 Republican field for the White House won’t attack former President 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 New Jersey 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 demure.

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 the U.S. Senate.

Despite attacks, John McCain wouldn't disavow Trump

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

The reason? He wouldn’t disavow Trump.

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 as a Vietnam War prisoner at the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.” “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people that 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.”

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

Evel Knievel ran for president? It's not that crazy a premise. Think Donald Trump.

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 2016, the infamous 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape surfaced of Trump talking like a foul-mouthed frat boy on a bender, and McCain could no longer stand pat. He disavowed Trump.

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.”

Donald Trump is a freak of nature

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.

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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.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came the closest to challenging Trump’s dominance, and then the feds raided Mar-a-Lago. It has been downhill ever since.

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 news media.

McCain went through this same refiner’s fire the first time he ran for president in 2000.

As he closed in on George W. Bush in 1999, the news broke that Arizona Republican Gov. Jane Hull would be endorsing Bush, because the homegrown McCain has a bad temper (Doesn’t that sound quaint in the Trump era?).

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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.”

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

“People come away with great respect and admiration for him," Woods said. "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 the presidential candidate would be back in 2008, when he confronted another force of nature, another 100-year event: Barack Obama.

As Sen. McCain used to say, it’s one thing to kibitz 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, where this column first published.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Meghan McCain attacks GOP, forgetting her dad's own Trump problem