Sen. John McCain said Monday that he didn't really mean anything by calling the 15,000 people who turned out for a rally for Donald Trump in Phoenix "crazies," turning away a question over whether he plans to apologize.
"Listen, you know, my state is a very dynamic and divisive state," the Arizona Republican told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show. "I have hundreds of town hall meetings in Arizona, and I'm called crazy. I thought it was a term of endearment."
"I love my people and so I meant it in a way, in a term of affection, to be honest with you," McCain said.
Last week, McCain, who lost his 2008 bid for the presidency to then-Sen. Barack Obama, said that Trump's rally could hurt him politically, especially his push for comprehensive immigration reform.
"It's very bad," McCain, who is up for re-election in Arizona in 2016, told
The New Yorker. "This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful to me. Because what he did was, he fired up the crazies."
McCain has been pushing for
comprehensive immigration reform for a while, in a fight that has put him at odds with the more conservative members of the party.
Trump has been under fire from the large GOP field — with the notable exception of Ted Cruz — after saying on Saturday that
McCain is "not a war hero" and is, in fact, a "loser." McCain, a Navy pilot in the Vietnam War, was shot down and held for more than five years in North Vietnam's "Hanoi Hilton" prison, where he was repeatedly tortured.
Trump said his comments were in response to McCain calling the thousands of supporters who turned out for a Trump appearance on illegal immigration "crazies," and insisted that he reversed himself within minutes, calling McCain a hero, but that his critics refuse to acknowledge that.
Watch the video here.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.