Arizona Senate candidate Kelli Ward hinted McCain family timed announcement to hurt her campaign

Before Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) died on Saturday, his family announced Friday he was ending treatment for brain cancer, and conservative Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward and one of her campaign staffers publicly questioned the timing of their statement.

On Saturday, staffer Jonathan Williams wrote on Facebook that he wondered if the McCain family released their statement on Friday as part of a "plan to take media attention" off of Ward's campaign, The Arizona Republic reports. "I'm not saying it was on purpose but it's quite interesting," he added. Ward set off on a tour of the state on Friday, ahead of Tuesday's primary, and she responded on Facebook, "I think they wanted to have a particular narrative that they hope is negative to me."

The comment disappeared shortly after she posted it, the Republic reports, and she followed up with another remark, saying she was praying for McCain and this was "the media making something out of nothing. The media, the left, and the establishment have the agenda." McCain died hours later. The comment was "wildly inappropriate," former Maricopa County Republican Party official Aaron Borders told the Republic. "It's classless. It's not decent ... it's very narcissistic. It's a narcissist comment to sit there and think that the McCain family made this decision to interfere with your bus tour."

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