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McCain calls Trump ‘impulsive’ and ‘poorly informed’ in op-ed

Senator John McCain. Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images

The Senate is getting ready to return to session, and Senator John McCain seems ready to move on from President Trump.

In a Friday op-ed in the Washington Post, McCain tells his colleagues that they aren’t “subordinates” of the president and they should work to serve as a check on his power.

McCain vented that Congress is being made to work with a president “who has no experience of public office, is often poorly informed and can be impulsive in his speech and conduct.”

The senator from Arizona suggested Congress should work around Trump.

“We must respect his authority and constitutional responsibilities. We must, where we can, cooperate with him. But we are not his subordinates. We don’t answer to him. We answer to the American people,” he wrote. “We must be diligent in discharging our responsibility to serve as a check on his power.”

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Trump, who doesn’t take kindly to criticism, has frequently been at odds with McCain. The most recent flare-up occurred after McCain became the deciding vote that killed the GOP’s most recent Affordable Care Act repeal bill in a dramatic early morning session.

Trump attacked McCain at a rally in Arizona late last month, repeatedly referencing the “one vote” that sunk the bill, though Trump didn’t mention him by name.

McCain has also shown more of a willingness to loudly defy members of his own party and call for bipartisanship in the wake of his cancer diagnosis.

After his vote against the Obamacare repeal bill, McCain addressed his colleagues and condemned the polarized political climate, calling for a return to civility.

McCain, who has been receiving treatment for an aggressive cancer known as glioblastoma, is expected to return to the Senate next week.


Christina Prignano can be reached at christina.prignano@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @cprignano.

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