President Biden is honoring late Republican Sen. John McCain, his longtime Senate colleague, in Tempe, Arizona, on Thursday on the dedication of a brand new library named for the senator and struggle hero.Mr. Biden might be giving a speech on what the White Home has characterised as "defending" democracy, which a White Home official stated Wednesday …
President Biden is honoring late Republican Sen. John McCain, his longtime Senate colleague, in Tempe, Arizona, on Thursday on the dedication of a brand new library named for the senator and struggle hero.
Mr. Biden might be giving a speech on what the White Home has characterised as “defending” democracy, which a White Home official stated Wednesday evening is a “central explanation for Joe Biden’s presidency.”
Cindy McCain, different members of the McCain household and Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, are anticipated to be there. The McCain Library might be developed by the McCain Institute and Arizona State College, with funds from the American Rescue Plan going towards development.
Mr. Biden and McCain served collectively within the Senate for many years and have been shut buddies. In 2008, they discovered themselves on reverse sides of the bitter 2008 presidential election, when McCain was the Republican nominee and Mr. Biden was operating to develop into vice chairman.
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Mr. Biden delivered an emotional eulogy at McCain’s funeral after his loss of life from mind most cancers in 2018, saying he “all the time considered John as a brother, with a hell of a number of household fights.” He awarded him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022.
Whereas in Vietnam earlier this month, Mr. Biden visited the John McCain Memorial in Hanoi, close to the spot the place McCain’s Skyhawk dive bomber was shot down by North Vietnamese fighters in 1967. He was captured and served greater than 5 years in a POW camp.
“I miss him. He was pal,” Mr. Biden stated after visiting the memorial.
McCain represented Arizona within the Senate for over three many years, and the state is likely one of the key battleground states that Mr. Biden should defend in 2024. McCain had been one of the vital vocal critics of former President Donald Trump, and Trump disparaged McCain steadily, even after his mind most cancers analysis.
Cindy McCain, his widow, endorsed Mr. Biden for president in 2020. The president appointed her to develop into the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Businesses for Meals and Agriculture in 2021, and she or he turned the chief director of the World Meals Programme earlier this 12 months.
Till 2020, Arizona had been a Republican stronghold for years, with two Republican senators and a streak of supporting GOP presidential candidates that stretched again to 1996. However following former Sen. Jeff Flake’s retirement and McCain’s loss of life in 2018, each Senate seats flipped to Democrats and Mr. Biden narrowly received the state in 2020.
In 2020, Democrat Mark Kelly defeated Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who had been appointed to fill McCain’s seat, in a particular election. He efficiently defended the seat in opposition to Blake Masters in 2022, when Hobbs defeated Republican Kari Lake to take the governor’s mansion as nicely.
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