Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who is considered one of the most outspoken members of Congress, was booed and called a “war mongrel” during a GOP meeting in Arizona on Saturday. The term “war mongrel” is a hybrid and more negative form of the phrase “war monger.”
Yet every sneer was met with support from his Republican Vietnamese base, which held up and waved their native country’s flag in defiance of the rattling hostility in their midst. The flag is the South Vietnamese one used before the fall of Saigon to communist rule and subsequent unification of the once war-torn country.
Video footage given exclusively to Breitbart News captured activists shouting at Sen. McCain things like, “Go home. Back to your fucking palace! Get the fuck out of here. This guy’s a traitor!” At one point, Sen. McCain started discussing the topic of ISIS and alluded to greater military engagement in the Middle East as he spoke of threats from the Islamic terrorist group that several attacks on America are planned. An activist then shouted, “You’re a war mongrel,” to which a fellow female activist shrieked at a glass-shattering decibel in agreement.
McCain then responded to the activists’ accusations and said, “You are too” before ending his brief verbal engagement with the group by saying “(inaudible), my friend.” McCain then seamlessly transitioned back to speaking and pointed out that Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Winston Churchill. England and America share a strong trans-Atlantic alliance.
After most of his statements, the opposition group shouted profanities and booed McCain. Yet, they remained silent when the Senator spoke of President Barack Obama’s failed foreign policy regarding Yemen, which was set up as a model for America’s counterterrorism efforts in the Middle East. The mission has been declared inactive following their government’s fall at the hands of Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the subsequent resignation of United States-backed President Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. “This president is either in denial or delusion. And it cannot stand,” McCain said, to which even the activists applauded.
The Republican activists also applauded Sen. McCain when he spoke of returning America to the strength the nation once held and commended the men and women in our armed forces.
McCain is reportedly attempting to purge his party of extreme conservatives who might stand in opposition to his efforts to bring in a greater influx of minority voters. His political team is said to be “engaging in an aggressive and systematic campaign to reshape the state GOP apparatus by ridding it of conservative firebrands and replacing them with steadfast allies.” Essentially, his beef is with the Arizona Tea Party. The move is seen as a potential sign of what could be the firebrand Senator’s attempt to run for the nation’s highest office again.
McCain has stated time and again that he fears he will be the top target of the Tea Party in 2016, should he cement plans to run for president a third time. The seasoned Senator has been trying to reshape Arizona’s Republican demographic to be more inclusive of various ethnic groups by weeding out many of Arizona’s “traditional” conservative base. The move has been met with the ire of many hardline right-wingers.
McCain served in the Vietnam War and was a prisoner of war (POW) for six years, between 1967-1973. He was tortured to such an extent that he has limited mobility in his upper arms. He and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse visited Vietnam this past summer, in an apparent move to appeal to Arizona’s Vietnamese population, which is one of the Grand Canyon State’s largest Asian minority populations and also among its fastest growing.
Follow Adelle Nazarian: @AdelleNaz.
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