Cindy McCain on Arizona GOP move to censure: 'It's time' Republicans 'get back on track'

Her late husband, Sen. John McCain, was censured by Arizona Republicans in 2014.

January 14, 2021, 5:16 PM

As Arizona's Republican Party prepares to vote on the possible censure of Cindy McCain next week, McCain appeared on "The View" in part to offer her take on the state party's move.

McCain is the wife of the late Sen. John McCain, an Arizona native. The proposed censures would also apply to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and former Sen. Jeff Flake. All three have voiced support for President-elect Joe Biden. If passed on Jan. 23, the censures would only serve to express disapproval at the three Republicans and would not bring formal repercussions.

McCain has not held public office.

When McCain's daughter, "The View" co-host Meghan McCain asked her about the move to censure her for supporting the Democratic presidential ticket, Cindy McCain said she did what "is right for the country."

PHOTO: Cindy McCain joins "The View" on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2020.
Cindy McCain joins "The View" on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2020.
ABC News

"Certainly Sen. Flake and our Governor Ducey have made some very tough decisions lately and in the past ... but it was for the good of our state and for our country," she said.

Cindy McCain added that she'll be "in good company" if the resolutions are passed because her husband was censured by Arizona's Republican Party in 2014 over what they saw as a liberal-leaning record, which the party called "disastrous and harmful" to the state.

"I think I'm going to make T-shirts for everyone and wear them," McCain joked.

Meghan McCain came to her mother's defense, saying the Arizona Republican Party's effort to censure seems "bitter for a state that's now blue."

"The state is changing and it's your home," Meghan McCain told her mother. "Your father was born and raised in Arizona. I was born and raised. You were born and raised. I don't understand the anger and hostility."

"I found it deeply hurtful. I know you did too," she added. "I just basically wanted to tell you I found it hurtful on national television. That's all."

Some people had long questioned whether Arizona would turn blue. In November's general election, Biden won the presidency in part by winning Arizona, and former astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, unseated Republican incumbent Sen. Martha McSally.

"When I began in the Republican Party officially, the Republican party was the party of inclusion. It was the party of generosity. It was the party of 'country first,'" Cindy McCain said. "We have lost our way and it's time that we get back on track."

"I truly hope that as things progress on, and we get further away from this mess that occurred, that we can do just that," she added. "We can get back on track and remind everyone that we are here for the country and not our party."

Cindy McCain also reacted to the Capitol siege, saying, "I, like all of us, believe in the rule of law, and it was very evident and very clear the other day that the rule of law was nowhere to be found."

She said people should "take stock" of the events of the past week "and remind our families and our neighborhoods and our communities that we need to care a little bit differently and a little more fervently about our country now."

Cindy McCain went on to say that she was "brokenhearted" when she saw what happened at the Capitol.

"It just broke my heart, and if there was ever a time I thought we needed my husband, it's right now," she said. "I wish he were here."

She said her husband would have been "furious."

With over 35 years of public service, Sen. John McCain was a Vietnam War hero and maverick conservative who is often viewed as one of the most distinctive figures in modern American politics.

"I wondered if he wouldn't have gone out the doors and faced them down himself," McCain said on Wednesday. "That was the kind of person he was."

"He would also be reminding everybody, it is time that we get a handle on things. We cannot accept any of this anymore," McCain added. "Not only is it not acceptable, it's abhorrent."

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