The McCain, Trump kids have joined their fathers' fight

Meghan McCain, Sen. John McCain, and Jimmy McCain.

(Image credit: Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images)

published 22 July 2015

It's McCain vs. Trump: The Next Generation.

Sen. John McCain's kids aren't letting Donald Trump get away with remarks he made Saturday at a GOP event, when he said former POW McCain wasn't a "war hero," adding, "I like people who weren't captured." On Monday, two of McCain's children made the media rounds — daughter Meghan on Fox News and son Jack on CNN — to speak out against Trump's "inflammatory" statements.

"Donald Trump has to understand he's running to be the commander in chief of the United States military," Jack, a Naval Academy graduate, said. "When you're doing so, if an individual gets rolled up and becomes a prisoner of war, then is he going to abandon them simply because he doesn't like people who are captured?" Speaking with Megyn Kelly, Meghan said, "This is one of the grossest, most disgusting comments I've ever heard which is really saying something — I'm 30 years old. And it's because it's not just an attack on my father, it's an attack on all veterans and it’s an attack on all POWs." Trump, she added, is an "extremely disconnected millionaire living in New York City."

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Three of the Trump kids — Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric — issued their own statement to People Tuesday, showing support for their father without directly referencing the McCain drama. "Our father, Donald J. Trump, is a true visionary and a great mentor," they said. "He is a brilliant negotiator with a proven track record of getting things done. More importantly, he is an incredible dad and role model. He raised us to work hard and strive for excellence in all that we do."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.