In a new interview, Cindy McCain admitted she asked Kurt Volker to step down from the McCain Institute over his ties to the Ukraine impeachment scandal.
‘Kurt is a good man. A good man. But this was overshadowing the Institute and it was overshadowing what we do and what we work for. So it was time,’ McCain told David Axelrod in a sit-down for his CNN show ‘The Axe Files’ on Saturday. ‘Kurt needs to concentrate on what’s going on now. He’s a good man. I’m sorry all this happened, I really am. But my first goal is to look out for the institute.’
Volker, the former U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine, resigned from being the executive director of the McCain Institute in October.
Cindy McCain (left) told David Axelrod that she asked Kurt Volker (right) to resign from being executive director of the McCain Institute after he got ensnared with the Ukraine impeachment scandal
Despite how President Trump has treated the late Sen. John McCain (pictured), Cindy McCain says she has no plans to leave the Republican Party
Cindy McCain talked about how Joe Biden has helped her family, including daughter Meghan (right) get through the death of her husband Sen. John McCain (left)
Volker got swept up in the Ukraine scandal a month earlier.
He had been named in the whistleblower complaint as an individual who was organizing meetings between President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ukrainian officials.
The whistleblower also alleged that Volker traveled to Kiev to assist Ukrainian officials in how to respond to Trump’s demands.
Volker had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a day after the July 25 call with Trump that triggered the whistleblower complaint and, eventually, the House Democrats opening up an impeachment inquiry.
Trump is accused of holding up $400 million in military aid to pressure Ukraine into investigating Hunter and Joe Biden.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is one of Trump’s top 2020 political rivals.
Trump has long protested that he did nothing wrong.
Beyond her admission that she asked Volker to resign, Cindy McCain also told Axelrod that she didn’t plan to leave the Republican Party, despite its current leader, Trump, continuing to insult her late husband even after he died.
‘I’m not leaving the Republican Party,’ she said. ‘I love the Republican Party. That’s our home.’
When asked why Trump continues to pick on the late John McCain, Cindy said she didn’t know.
‘I’ve been baffled by this. I really don’t know what’s going on,’ she answered. ‘I do know this. I know that John was a hero and will continue to be a hero and I think most Americans would agree with me that, whether you agreed with his politics or not, he was a good man.’
In an August interview that marked the anniversary of her husband’s death she demurred when asked if Joe Biden would make a good president.
‘Well, I think we need to let the process work,’ she said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ ‘I think all the candidates are good candidates, they represent different views, they represent different ideas, this is going to be a tumultuous election for many, many reasons.’
‘So I look forward to hearing from all of them and I look forward to seeing the process work,’ she continued. ‘It’s a lot of fun.’
Biden has been a friend of the McCain family for decades, and Cindy McCain talked about that friendship in her sit-down with Axelrod.
She said she was disappointed when Trump tried to go after the ex-vice president and suggest he was corrupt.
‘I had the same reaction that any friend would have, I was very disappointed in all of this,’ she said. ‘You know, again, John always worked across the aisle. And he did that in both friendships and in his service,’ McCain continued.
‘And there’s no reason to, in my opinion, to disparage anyone that’s running – you know, just because you disagree with them,’ she added.
Asked if she would vouch for Biden’s integrity, McCain answered in the affirmative.
‘I would, yes. I think he’s a lovely man. I mean, I really do. I differ with him on his politics all too often, but that’s OK. Our friendship goes way beyond that,’ she said. ‘I mean, Joe Biden has kept this family together in many ways.’
McCain recalled how Biden would come visit John, her and her daughter Megan, one of the co-hosts on ‘The View.’
‘I mean he’s really taken an interest in trying to guide her a bit through this, it’s been very hard on her,’ McCain said. ‘And so, I mean, this is our friend,’ she said of Biden.
Biden lost his first wife and his young daughter in a car accident right before he took office as a U.S. senator. His eldest son Beau Biden, who served as the attorney general of Delaware, died of cancer in 2015.
John McCain lost his own battle with cancer in August 2018.
The McCains asked President Obama, who Axelrod worked for, and President George W. Bush to speak at the Arizona senator’s funeral. Obama and Bush were previous political rivals, who turned into friends. The family did not ask President Trump to attend.
McCain explained why.
‘I had to worry about my family, and the family was somewhat bitter about things that had been said about their dad. And so, it would have been very disruptive to my children,’ she said. ‘It was ultimately my choice and my decision, but it just – I just didn’t want any disruption – I didn’t want anything to overshadow John McCain that day because that’s why we were there.’
The Arizona Republican’s widow also talked about Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. McCain’s best pal in the Senate, who as of late has become a vocal Trump ally.
‘You know, I can’t gauge a lot of this because I don’t know what’s going on in South Carolina,’ McCain said. ‘Listen, Lindsey is a member of our family and I love him regardless and he will always be – he and I are the same age, but I feel like sometimes he’s my fifth child.’
‘I love him to death,’ she added.
Asked if she gave her ‘fifth child’ some advice, she said yes, but stayed mum.
‘I have offered advice,’ McCain said. ‘Yes, I have.’