In an advancement from the video shared with The Associated Press, Cindy McCain talks about how Biden, then a Delaware senator, met her husband when John McCain was commissioned to be a military aid worker for him on a trip to abroad. The two became friends, and the families would gather for picnics in the backyard of Bidens.
Cindy McCain, wife of former Senator John McCain, in Arizona, will be playing handball for Joe Biden, and gave her voice in a video that aired Tuesday during the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo / Ross D. Franklin, file)
Credit: Ross D. Franklin
Credit: Ross D. Franklin
Cindy McCain was not expected to offer an explicit distinction, but her involvement in the video is her biggest public show of support to date for Biden’s candidacy. McCain was the Republican presidential nominee in 2008 against Democrat Barack Obama, who won the election with Biden as his running mate.
This is starting to look more like a Republican convention. We had John Kasich yesterday, a pro-gun, anti-abortion and anti-labor former governor.
Now we have Colin Powell, the man who falsely accused Iraq of WMDs for the United Nations.#Democratic convention pic.twitter.com/3XJO674JBZ
– PROGRESSIVE 4 (@Democracy_Rep) August 19, 2020
When McCain died on a Saturday in 2018, the Trump administration lowered the U.S. flag over the White House to half staff, but then raised it on Monday. After public outcry, the flags of the White House were lowered again. Trump was not invited to McCain’s funeral.
Powell on Tuesday night praised social media for his role in the invasion of Iraq during the Bush administration under the condition that then-dictator Saddam Hussein conceal weapons of mass destruction.
Colin Powell speaks on the #Democratic convention? Really? The man who lied to the UN to drag us into war with Iraq? The man responsible for the deaths of 1000s of American soldiers, countless Iraqis, wasting trillions of $? I feel sick. # DNC2020
Medea Benjamin @medeabenjamin August 19, 2020
Powell said Biden “will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, and not the flutter of dictators and narrators.” Trump has expressed doubts about the intelligence community’s findings on Russian involvement in the 2016 campaign, and has praised dictators.
Powell also lamented that “today we have divided a country, and we have a president who does everything in his power to make us this way, to keep us that way.”
Here is the full text of Powell’s comments:
“Hi. I’m former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
“One hundred years ago, a young immigrant left a dirt farm in Jamaica and moved to the United States.
‘Three years later, a ship entered the harbor of New York, and a young Jamaican woman looked for the first time at the Statue of Liberty. They became my parents, and they inspired me to finish college and join the army.
‘This started a journey of service that would take me from basic training to fighting in Vietnam, up the rank to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State.
‘The values I learned to grow in the South Bronx and to serve in uniform were the same values as Joe Biden’s parents in him in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I support Joe Biden for the presidency of the United States, because these values still define him, and we need to return those values to the White House.
‘Our country needs a commander who takes care of our troops in the same way as his own family. For Joe Biden, that is not a lesson needed. It comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families – sending his beloved son to war and praying to God that he would return home safely.
“Joe Biden will be a president, we will all be proud of him. With Joe Biden in the White House, you will never doubt that he will stand with our friends and stand up against our opponents – never the other way around.
“He will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flutter of dictators and despots. He will make it his job to know when someone is threatening us. He will resist our power with power and experience. They will know he means business.
“I support Joe Biden, because one day he will restore the leadership of America and our moral authority. He will be a president who knows that America is the strongest, as, as he said, ‘We both lead by the strength of our example as the example of our power. ”He will restore America’s leadership to the world and restore the alliances we need to tackle the dangers that threaten our nation from climate change. to nuclear proliferation.
‘Today, we are a divided country, and we have a president who does everything in his power to make it so and to keep us that way. What a difference it will make to have a President who unites us, who restores our strength and our soul. I still believe that in our hearts we are the same America that brought my parents to our shores, an America that inspires the world freedom. That will lead America’s Joe Biden as our next president. Thank you so much.”
