(NewsNation) — Jimmy McCain, the son of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, criticizing former President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery as a “violation.”
In an interview Tuesday on CNN, McCain revealed he changed his voter registration from independent to Democrat and plans to vote for Harris in November. He said he changed his party affiliation to honor his father, “put the country first” and “get involved in any way I could” to support Harris’ campaign.
“I care about my family. I care about equal rights of everyone in this country. I care about all this. As much as I stayed as an independent, I decided that, you know, it was time to move on and do what I believe in,” McCain said.
Last week, Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery to mark the anniversary of the 2021 Kabul airport attack that killed 13 U.S. service members during the military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and he was accompanied by their families.
However, an Army spokesperson reported that a member of Trump’s team “abruptly pushed aside” a cemetery official during a wreath-laying ceremony. The official was trying to enforce rules that “clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds,” the spokesperson said.
McCain called Arlington National Cemetery “sacred” and noted three generations of his family are buried there.
“Arlington Cemetery is to go and show respect for the men and women who have given their lives to this country,” McCain said. “When you make it political, you take away the respect of the people who are there.”
Trump’s team disputes the Army’s account, with campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt asserting that “there has been no greater advocate” for the military than Trump.
Meanwhile, John McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain, a known Trump critic, wrote on X on Tuesday that she will not be voting for Trump or Harris in November.
“Please stop trying to turn me into a progressive. It’s a fever dream,” she wrote last week. “I’m a life long, generational conservative,” she wrote in another post on X.
Trump repeatedly attacked John McCain, most notably in 2015 when he said the late senator was not a war hero because he was captured. McCain, who died in 2018, was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for more than five years.
The Associated Press and The Hill contributed to this report.