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WASHINGTON (AP) – Cindy McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain, became the last prominent Republican voice on Tuesday (Sept. 22) to back Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in his bid to take the White House from President Donald Trump. in the November elections.
“My husband John lived by one code: country first,” McCain wrote on Twitter. “We are Republicans, yes, but Americans first and foremost. There is only one candidate in this race who defends our values as a nation, and that is @JoeBiden.”
Biden, who forged a long friendship with John McCain despite their ideological differences, had broken the news earlier during a virtual fundraiser, telling his followers that Cindy McCain decided to endorse him after Atlantic magazine reported that Trump had called American soldiers who died in combat “losers” and “fools.”
Trump has denied making the comments. The president and McCain had a history of animosity, after Trump discredited McCain’s military service and the years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam during the 2016 presidential campaign. Cindy McCain appeared in a video on Biden’s behalf at the Democratic National Convention in August.
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John McCain, who represented Arizona in the United States Senate for more than three decades and was the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, died of brain cancer in 2018.
In August, more than 100 former McCain employees announced their support for Biden. Recent state polls give Biden an edge in Arizona, which voted for Trump in 2016.
Trump held a campaign rally in the battlefield state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday as the death of liberal US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday continued to reshape the presidential race.
READ: Comment: US Supreme Court Drama Makes Presidential Election More Unpleasant
US President Donald Trump points to the crowd during a campaign rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, US, September 22, 2020 (Photo: REUTERS / Tom Brenner).
Trump said earlier on Tuesday that he would reveal his choice on Saturday in hopes of scheduling a Senate confirmation vote before the Nov. 3 election, despite harsh criticism from Biden and Congressional Democrats. Replacing Ginsburg would cement a conservative 6-3 majority in the high court.
“We’re going to pick an amazing woman,” Trump said at the rally, where he also mocked Biden for wearing a mask at campaign events.
READ: Mitt Romney Says Senate Should Vote On Trump Supreme Court Election
Biden has criticized Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 200,000 people in the United States, more than in any other country. Trump has said that his handling of the crisis saved lives.
Biden will return to the election campaign on Wednesday with his first trip as a Democratic nominee to North Carolina, another key state.
A Reuters / Ipsos poll released Tuesday showed Trump and Biden even in the state that Trump won in 2016.
Voters in about half a dozen states have already begun casting their early ballots in person, and election experts expect an increase in early voting and by mail this year as people try to reduce their risk of exposure to the coronavirus.
The pandemic has helped fuel a large number of lawsuits in dozens of states for efforts to ease voting-by-mail restrictions in light of the pandemic. On Tuesday, North Carolina election officials agreed to count absentee ballots received up to nine days after Election Day, provided they were postmarked Nov. 3.
Courts in several other key states, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, have also extended absentee voting deadlines despite Republican opposition.
