The McCainiacs Panic as MAGA Candidates Win Big in Arizona

Trump-backed candidates won big across the country yesteday. The GOP Establishment, the Swamp, the Big Business-Big Government RINOs were hoping to stop the Trump train triumphing throughout the USA.

Nowhere was Trump’s endorsement prowess more on display than in Arizona.

Blake Masters stomped on the GOP competition in his bid to challenge Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly. It wasn’t even close, and his challengers included Mark Brnovich, the feckless Attorney General who refused to defend the “No Promo Homo” legislation in the school district’s and refused to prosecute rampant voter fraud and other election irregularities.

Gov. Ducey and his political establishment were angling for a whole array of already-elected candidates to move into statewide office. They all crashed and burned.

Their biggest defeat is the rising star of former news anchor and star MAGA candidate for governor Kari Lake.

Election Wizard made the protection as of this afternoon:

RACE CALLED: Kari Lake will win the GOP nomination for Arizona Governor and face Katie Hobbs in November. pic.twitter.com/feNBvvcfrJ— Election Wizard 🇺🇸 (@ElectionWiz) August 3, 2022

Meghan McCain was none too thrilled with Lake’s ascent into the general election, and Lake gleefully rubber her victory in baby McCain’s face:

This ain’t your daddy’s Arizona.

The state belongs to the people now.

And they chose @KariLake to move Arizona forward. https://t.co/QDB0szHCPX pic.twitter.com/s0yWmqO4Sn— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) August 3, 2022

Meghan McCain is a RINO sellout who sold her presence and name so she could make some money while being repeatedly humiliated and vilified on The View with the other liberal Karens. She is part of the long dynasty of McCain politicos, with Daddy McCain, who have pushed for Big Military, Big Government, Big Amnesty conservatism for the last twenty years.

This kind of country club Republicanism turned off voters in 2012, men and women in rural and working-class districts who had been abandoned by the perennial bipartisan uniparty political class. Trump disrupted the easy gravy train for establishment politicians and their consultant cohorts.

Kari Lake continues that legacy.

I suspect that the only reason we have witnessed upset Democratic victories in Arizons, first in the two US Senate races and then in the 2020 Presidential election, is that the McCainiacs refuse to go along with the new direction of the Arizona and the National Republican Parties. The best way for them to maintain business-as-usual corruption was to help elect Democrats to federal office. McCain’s successors in the Grand Canyon State have no problem maintaining onto what little power they have in Maricopa County or in other precinct committees throughout the state. They have no problem depriving the conservative insurgencies in the state party with loss after loss, as long as those defeats discourage America First conservatives in the short term and allow McCain’s acolytes to take back control of the state party and the local offices.

It’s really disgusting, how politicians within the GOP have no qualms about screwing over their own party, their base, and the constituents at large because they are sore losers in the shadow of Trump’s growing election and policy victories through election 2022.

The latest slate of primary winners in Arizona has really put the McCainiacs into a panic, and they deserve it!

The Nadir of CNN Self-Service: TDS Overtakes McCain Tribute with Gov. John Sununu

The brief yet tense exchange between former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu and CNN Anchor Alisyn Camerota was too much to ignore. TDS, or Trump Derangement Syndrome, is still strong with CNN.

Last month, I faced questions about President Trump from Alisyn Camerota for her “New Day” program. For this segment, she invited the former Governor to talk about John McCain.

And yet, she seemed more interested in talking about Donald Trump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnC0seSAYSg

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So joining us now to talk about the legacy of John McCain is former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu. He was chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush.

Good morning, governor.

JOHN SUNUNU (R), FORMER NEW HAMPSHIRE GOVERNOR: Good morning, Alisyn. How are you?

CAMEROTA: Well, I’m well.

Oh, my gosh, just remembering how much time John McCain invested in New Hampshire and how much he loved the retail politics there and the mixing it up and the stump speeches. You know, Jeff Jacobi, in “The Boston Globe” this morning, calls him New Hampshire’s third senator. What are your thoughts?

The segment begins well enough, focused on Presidential aspirant McCain’s attempts to ecome Chief Executive, twice. He worked New Hampshire very hard, and he won the state both times.

SUNUNU: That’s very accurate. You know, if you’re involved in politics at all in New Hampshire, you certainly do get to know at least on some level those who are running for president. And John McCain grew to embrace the style of campaigning that works well in New Hampshire.

The last time I saw him, for any significant amount of time, was when he came up to campaign for Kelly Ayotte in 2016. And we spent a full day — I was trying to help my son, Chris, who was running for governor, and the four of us spent a full day in a van crossing the state, hitting a number of events. And to listen to John talk in that van about how wonderful his experiences were up here, you knew this was someone that had truly connected with the state. He loved the campaigning, the face to face campaigning. He loved being challenged with questions at the town hall.

It’s worth noting that Kelly Ayotte, who had joined herself with the Establishment wing of the GOP along with John McCain and Lindsey Graham, ended up losing her re-election bid in New Hampshire. She refused to support President Trump after the “Grabber Gate” recording hit the public. The candidates running for US Senate who disavowed Trump after those private remarks went public never recovered.

[08:35:07] And as we went from event to event, it was obvious he remembered people at each one of those events from the previous campaigns and loved to chat with them about how they had come together over the years. So he really did embrace the New Hampshire see me, touch me, feel me style of campaigning and grew to love the people that helped him.

CAMEROTA: You’re just reminding me of something from the Straight Talk Express. So I was on it — on the bus with him in 1999. And, you know, I went to many of his stump speeches. So he would sometimes replay his greatest hits, you know, and some of his favorite jokes. And one of them that I’m just reminded of is that he said that he overheard two women in New Hampshire talking after one of his stump speeches and one said to the other, what do you think of Senator McCain? And the other one said, I don’t know, I’ve only met him three times. And he used to — that one brought the house down.

An old joke, often repeated. At least John McCain was funny to some people–but CNN has a similar schtick, and no one finds them funny at all.

SUNUNU: Yes, that’s — John had about five jokes that he loved to repeat.

CAMEROTA: I know.

SUNUNU: And, in fact, let you know he was going to repeat them. So he used them well and it got to a point where the audience felt deprived if he didn’t tell the same joke the next time they saw him that he had said the previous time.

Look, this was —

CAMEROTA: No, I totally agree, they didn’t get old. I agree, having heard them many times. He delivered them with the same verve and novelty each time.

Here’s something else about John McCain which I had not know, which made him somewhat more endearing, at least as a Presidential candidate. For the record, I did vote for him in the 2008 General Election, even though I had supported Mitt Romney in the June primary.

SUNUNU: Yes. And, you know, he had an interesting take on the town halls. He almost felt that he was deprived if somebody didn’t ask him a tough challenging question. Not somebody that he felt was trying to provoke him, but somebody that was trying to really find something out about an issue and he loved taking that opportunity to explain the details of something that was important.

Too bad that McCain didn’t govern with the same kind of personable panache for Arizona in Washington DC.

The person that knew him best up in New Hampshire, of course, is Senator Ayotte. John McCain embraced Senator Ayotte when she got elected. He kind of brought her in as part of the three amigos with Senator Lindsey Nelson and himself. And he worked with her on the committees and tried to make sure that she really was treated in a way that allowed her to grow in the Senate. And he — she really, I think, became his closest New Hampshire ally.

Ayotte should not have embraced John McCain at all. She should have embraced President Trump.

CAMEROTA: So, governor, what do you think about President Trump rejecting the practice of putting out an official White House statement about John McCain’s service and sacrifice?

Here we go. At this part, the interview got tense but very engaging for us conservatives who are tired of CNN (Clinton News Network) repeatedly attacking our President.

SUNUNU: Look, that was printed in “The Washington Post,” and I have to be honest with you, I don’t give much credence to what I read.

CAMEROTA: We also have that reporting.

SUNUNU: Yes, well, same thing applies, Alisyn.

BAM! I loved this. This transcript won’t convey the shocked look on Camerota’s face. I saw something vaguely similar when I told her that CNN’s ratings were in the tank. People don’t want to watch non-stop anti-Trump mania, especially when it’s deliberately misleading and clearly false.

CAMEROTA: Governor, you come on CNN and we appreciate you coming on CNN and we appreciate your take on it. But I don’t appreciate you denigrating our reporting. I think that you know we have excellent reporters here. But are you saying that you don’t want to believe that? You don’t want to believe that President Trump would do that about John McCain?

I … I … I. Hey, Alisyn. This interview is about John McCain, right? It’s not supposed to be about you. Do you understand?

SUNUNU: I’m saying that I don’t want to comment on a report that I haven’t satisfied myself is correct.

CAMEROTA: And if that report were true?

SUNUNU: I’m not going to answer the hypothetical.

Good for you, John Sununu!

CAMEROTA: It’s not hypothetical. This is our reporting. We have rock solid sources in the White House that there was a statement that drafted —

Wow! She doubles down on the network’s shameless duplicity, but Sununu isn’t having any of that.

SUNUNU: Alisyn, Look, I came on — you asked me to come on to talk about John McCain. I’m here to talk about John McCain as I remember him. I’m not here to talk about the press’s handling of a difference between the White House and the press corps at this time.

He handles this conflict with such diplomatic tact and flair, something that Chris Cuomo, Brian Stetler, and the other hack “journalists” (in reality, propagandists)

CAMEROTA: It’s not the press’s handling. It’s President Trump’s handling of John McCain’s death.

LIE! Wow, this desperate need to cover up for the media bias, the desperation to justify their lies, their anti-Trump madness is just stunning to me.

Sununu shows real class. More politicians should go on CNN. These corrupt, bigoted prima donnas make politicians look like real statesmen.

SUNUNU: OK. Look, John McCain was a great American who deserves to be recognized as a great American. He is being recognized by his colleagues and of friends — his friends around. Melania Trump has certainly put out an exceptionally strong statement outlining the appreciation for his service. The White House has recognized the sorrow of the family. And I think Americans ought to be looking at the positive side, not trying to create a division amongst people who are in joint sorrow mourning a great American.

CAMEROTA: And are you satisfied that President Trump’s statement goes far enough?

SUNUNU: I suspect there will be additional statements over time and I think this effort to try and create a cleavage there really does disturb me. It is, in fact, this kind of — it is, in fact —

Then Camerota gets really offended. The video conveys her sense of wounded pride. “This effort to try and create a cleavage …” Yes, the former Governor of New Hampshire directly calls out the unprincipled bias of Clinton News Network.

CAMEROTA: Sorry, can you repeat that? Sorry, somebody was talking to me. This effort to what?

“Someone was talking to me.” Wow! Talk about unprofessional. Can one assume that Camerota wasn’t listening in the first place? She was expecting a sharp exchange or long sequence of abusive rants against Trump.

Didn’t happen.

SUNUNU: Cleavage between the White House and the — and those that are mourning John McCain. It is this effort by the press to accentuate the negative that I think has created the climate that prevents, in the long term, the bipartisanship that John McCain supported. And I don’t want to be a part of rubbing whatever salt there is in whatever wound there may be because I think that just adds to the division.

It’s stunning how the Governor kept effortlessly returning the discussion back to McCain. He took Camerota’s brazen attempts to push a shameless political narrative and returned it to a more meaningful end.

[08:40:19] I’m here because I lost a good friend. I wanted to express my concern about that. I wanted to applaud what he contributed to the country. I wanted to underscore the relationship he had with the state of New Hampshire. And I’m not here to play the political games that some of the press want to play at this moment of what I think is great sorrow for the country.

Wow. Powerful moment. Such direct honesty, direct yet tactful and respectful.

CAMEROTA: Just to be clear, we don’t see it as a game. And to be clear, the press didn’t create whatever division exists that President Trump feels that allowed him to spike the statement that General John Kelly wanted him to put out about John McCain’s sacrifice. The press didn’t invent that.

Yes, they did, or at the very least they fanned this unrest.

SUNUNU: Alisyn, everybody — everybody — everybody reflects their concerns in ways that are consistent with whatever they feel. I’ve expressed my concern at the loss of John McCain, who I think was a great American. A great American hero in the military. A great American hero in the political process. And, frankly, great American hero on a personal level to people that knew him well. And it is on those three levels that I sense the loss and I have expressed my — my feelings of sorrow for him having passed and my expression of feelings of sorrow for his personal family who lost him and for a country who lost a great American hero.

I do not think McCain was a great hero at all. I despised the man. Yet Governor Sununu has a right to mourn the loss of his dear friend. He has a right to reminisce about the good times he shared with McCain, too.

CAMEROTA: You’re not alone, governor. So many people feel that way. So many people echo that today. And that’s why it is notable that the president doesn’t.

She just had to try one more time to bring in Trump. Sununu knew how to keep fighting it.

SUNUNU: Well, I’m here to talk about my friend John McCain. You appear to be here to talk about something that you think you can exploit. And I find that rather unpleasant.

BINGO! That word “exploit” was the perfect word. I am so glad that the Governor called her out like that. It was just perfect.

CAMEROTA: Governor, again, we don’t have to try to exploit something. This is a fact. This is a truism, that the —

SUNUNU: Well, why are you dwelling on it?

BAM!

CAMEROTA: Because President —

SUNUNU: I have given you my comment —

CAMEROTA: And I would —

SUNUNU: I have given you my comments on it and I am here to talk about John McCain.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

CAMEROTA: Fair. And I just reject your premise that this is something the press has created. It has been customary, probably since George Washington was president, to honor a war hero.

Here we go again. Camerota makes the discussion about her and the media all over again. This is so shameful, this is so unbelievably in bad taste. These shameful media frauds have no regard for anyone but themselves.

SUNUNU: And you should make — you should make your inquires directly to the White House if you want a direct answer.

CAMEROTA: Governor John Sununu, we appreciate you coming on and giving us your thoughts about what John McCain meant to you and to New Hampshire.

Notice how quickly

Thank you very much. 

SUNUNU: It’s a great loss for the country and for the world.

CAMEROTA: Indeed.

Final Reflection

Alisyn Camerota ran into the Sununu buzz-saw. He took her down like a boss, he rightly shamed her for making the whole interview about Trump instead of John McCain. Sununu calmly rebuked Camerota, forced her to return to the subject of the deceased US Senator, and even when she insisted on taking jabs at President Trump, Sununu rightly rebuked her and the press as a whole.

Nice job, John Sununu!

A Lack of Civility from Trump? What About the McCain Funeral Hoopla?

With all this civility talk in Washington DC, let’s not forget that the “civilized” political class, including Presidents Bush and Obama as well as US Senator John McCain, spent little time cutting back our foreign interventions into every other country while ignoring major concerns in the United States. They also bailed out the big banks, and they expanded the administrative state at the expense of the American citizen.

 

As for Senator McCain’s funeral, the stunning lack of civility during the McCain funeral procession on TV and during his funeral was disturbing and disappointing. The media pundits and the speakers at McCain’s funeral spent more time vilifying President Trump and his policies instead of eulogizing Senator McCain. Was it for lack of anything to praise about the senator?

 

He was a good father, from what little Meghan McCain shared about him, but he was a terrible US Senator, attacking climate change with unjust alarm while fighting to open up our borders and silence our freedom of speech. Not a legacy worth praising in my view. His repeated efforts to frustrate President Trump’s agenda on immigration, healthcare, and individual liberties was deeply disappointing, motivated by personal animus and not principled opposition.

 

For the record, there is nothing wrong with being uncivil to save Western Civilization and America’s political traditions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. President Trump may be crude sometimes, but he cares about all of us and our country–and that’s what counts.

What the McCain Mourning is Really All About

In a previous post, I reported that I do not particularly miss US Senator John McCain.

Yes, I voted for him when he ran for President, but I only voted for him in the 2008 general election. His “maverick’ reputation had tainted him for me, since he had voted for liberal policies in the past, including his rejection of the Bush tax cuts in 2001. He also voted for climate alarmism, amnesty, and campaign finance “reform”, in reality a form of political censorship. The legislation was so bad, that Washington Post columnist George Will had dedicated multiple broadsides against it.

Finally, the legislation was overturned in 2010. The five Supreme Court Justices who had ruled in favor of free speech stood their ground in spite of the abusive disrespect of President Barack Obama. Then came the full-borne floodgates of money, speech, and networking that exposed the political establishment for what it really was. With all that money pouring into television ads across the nation, Jeb Bush merely revealed to millions why he was a tired, unqualified candidate for the White House.

Hillary Clinton spent nearly twice as much as Trump, yet she still lost. Lipstick on a pig, no matter how rare or expensive, will not make beautify the beast. More money in politics has not corrupted the process, but has rather given more voices, groups, and interests the chances to make their case to the broader electorate. In the past, the incumbents scored most of the free press, and the challenges struggled to raise money because of stringent campaign finance laws.

As for climate alarmism, more nations are waking up to the more destructive agenda behind this move: government overreach into our daily lives. McCain wanted to make nice with liberal interests in the United States Senate. He wanted to place himself in the center, commanding demands over both sides of the aisle, to hold onto power the same way that swing justices on the Supreme Court would decide major cases.

There’s no principle in that, no policy goals which work for the best of all Americans. McCain was out for himself, and he looked for every arbitrary means to make himself “independent.”

What is all the mourningt about in the press, then? Why are we getting bombarded with some of the most average coverage, like “Meghan McCain cries over father’s casket”? What did anyone expect her to do? Laugh? Make a field goal? Go to Disneyland?

This is a very trying, hard time for the entire family, and I respect that. The media is propping up their reporting on John McCain because he served as the most reliable foil, the most consistent thorn to conservatives across the country and to the Trump Administration in particular. John McCain served as the signal of never-ending dissension among Republicans. He helped the media continue this lie that President Trump does not really represent the GOP, and that the real estate mogul and reality TV star was a mere aberration.

John McCain was a polished, acceptable version of “The Resistance”, a full on Establishment crony who never fought the DC Swamp, who put civility above constitutional civilization. He turned over the Steele Dossier in a brazen attempt to question, undermine, and render illegitimate the Trump Administration.

The press could play up their patriot credibility by fawning over John McCain, too, since he was a Vietnam War Veteran. This time around, however, all the gloating and love for McCain is falling on deaf ears. Most people don’t take the mainstream networks seriously anymore. All the junk exposing McCain’s anti-Trump, anti-Tea Party animus has come out.

McCain will go down as a veteran who worked for himself once he ascended the US Senate. Period.

We will also recall that his Trump Derangement Syndrome did a greater service purging the Republican Party of unhelpful RINOs who cared more about a globalist agenda that put Americans a distant second behind government and corporate interests.

McCain was all about McCain, and he became Big Media’s darling because he hated Trump so much. That is all.

John McCain: Opportunist, Not a Maverick

US Senator John McCain has died. I imagine that many writers will pile on the praises for the recently-deceased “maverick” US Senator from the Grand Canyon State.

Sorry, but I will not be joining the chorus of eulogies. Perhaps he was a saint in combat, but as an elected official he was one of the dregs. As Thomas Sowell once commented, being a veteran is not a “Get Out of Criticism Free” card. For any veteran’s service, we should be grateful. Their prior efforts in the military, however, do not cover for their failures, fallouts, sins, and betrayals once in office. In 2005, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a Congressman from the San Diego area, was convicted of multiple bribery charges in 2005. He didn’t get off easy just because he was a veteran. The same standard should hold true for anyone else, regardless of their service in the American Military.

Was McCain a crook? He weathered considerable scandal in the late 1980’s following the Savings and Loan collapse, but was never charged with anything. I have no interest in pursuing allegations, aspersions, or conspiracy theories. On his votes, on his rhetoric, on his policies, I appraise him, and John McCain is found wanting.

It’s hard to imagine someone like this guy replacing Barry Goldwater. Both were Presidential candidates, but Goldwater was a gold standard conservative. With a consistent libertarian streak, Goldwater stood by his principles, demanding a clean sweep of the D.C. Swamp long before such calls were popular. When President Richard Nixon was foundering under credible obstruction of justice charges, Goldwater joined with then House minority leader Ben Rhodes (also of Arizona) to urge Nixon’s resignation.

In stark contrast, John McCain was not a principled maverick, but a Swampy opportunist, a big government militarian who shamed those who wanted measured military ventures. He also slammed anyone else who skeptically opposed sudden interventionist campaigns. Even anti-Trump, pro-K Street conservative contrarian took offense when McCain questioned the patriotism of his anti-war critics.

There was a time, however, when John McCain stood for principle, bucking his party because he thought it was the right thing to do. In 2000 he ran against George W. Bush, the so-called Establishment favorite, capturing the outsider momentum in the New Hampshire primary with double-digit victory. When Texas Governor George W. Bush realized that he couldn’t follow his father’s centrist globalism to win the nomination, he turned right, slammed McCain with controversial smears (or at least his supporters did), and swept South Carolina. Of course, McCain’s blasting the “religious right” didn’t endear him to conservatives, either.

After Bush’s election, the maverick became a fly-by-night statist. Big Government “Compassionate conservatism” was the way to win big money for a political future, so McCain began voting that way. He had a penchant for voting against his political rivals’ agendas, too. He voted against Bush’s tax cuts. He pushed for McCain-Feingold campaign finance “reform.” He was willing to work with moderate pro-military Democrat Joseph Lieberman to combat climate change.

The greatest betrayal, of course, came with his ongoing dance with Democrats and other Chamber of Commerce Republicans for comprehensive immigration “reform”, i.e. amnesty. Thankfully, these proposals failed many times, and yet McCain insisted on this disastrous agenda, while representing a border state where one of his potential successors has called for building a wall between Arizona and California.

As a Presidential candidate, he was never my first choice. I lined up behind firebrand Congressman Tom Tancredo, then Romney for one reason: immigration. McCain did win the nomination in spite of massive opposition within the GOP, so I supported him in the general election. It’s remarkable, then and now, how little McCain wanted to fight back. Once in a while, he mocked his upstart opponent, Junior Senator Barack Obama. This historic first-time black nominee, however, hindered McCain’s capacity to campaign vigorously. Did the county want to bring in a nationalized health care system? A corrupt cap and trade program? Obama was planning to change the country and the world, but McCain spent more time distancing himself from Bush, all while suspending his campaign to bail out the Big Banks.

McCain the Swamp Thing embraced greater odium when he ran for re-election as a US Senator. Campaigning against his amnesty pandering, he fought hard to veer right during the 2010 Tea Party primary. “Build the Dang Fence” he growled. Two years later, he was building more bridges with amnesty proponents, playing both sides to make himself the star of the show in the middle.

Granted, John McCain was a hero. As a war prisoner in Hanoi, he refused to be released before others who had been imprisoned longer than he. For the record, Trump had acquiesced that McCain was a hero: “He’s a war hero because he was captured,” Trump had said, “I like people that weren’t captured.”  I also like veterans who do not get captured by bitterness and grandstanding. McCain hated Trump, and I hated McCain’s disdain. Shameful. Like so many Washington fixtures, McCain couldn’t stand that Trump, who wasn’t “one of them” had captured the White House, something that the privileged son of two naval officers couldn’t do.

The culmination of McCain’s personal opprobrium broke out not with the leaked Steele Dossier, but his “No” vote on against the Obamacare skinny repeal. Never have I witnessed such self-serving grandstanding. With arm raised high, after fifteen minutes of fraternizing with both sides of the aisle, he killed a real chance at repeal of that terrible bill, not because it wouldn’t serve Arizonans, but because his legacy of bipartisan double-dealing had come to an end with Trump’s ascension, and McCain was going to frustrate as many as he could with him.

Cancer is a terrible thing, and it must have been a tough decision for McCain and family to see him renounce further treatment. I recognize his service as a soldier, but as a representative, as a politician he was another self-serving opportunist, and I feel no remorse that he is gone.