NEW YORK _ Meghan McCain stated on Tuesday's season premiere of "The View" that she believes President Donald Trump referred to dead American soldiers as "losers" and "suckers," concurring that a Sept. 3 report by The Atlantic was likely true.
After complaining that neither she nor her family got a heads-up regarding the article, McCain, the daughter of Vietnam War hero and former Arizona Sen. John McCain, said, "I do believe President Trump probably said this," after being asked by Whoopi Goldberg for her assessment.
"I just feel like every three to six months I'm having a similar conversation with you where there's a report of President Trump disparaging troops or my family," said McCain. "This is familiar. It's familiar language that President Trump has used publicly."
And McCain wasn't done there.
After special guest, former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, joined the discussion, McCain detailed numerous times Trump had disparaged her father.
Acknowledging to Sanders that "it has to be very uncomfortable to have this kind of conversation with me," McCain obliquely referenced Trump's desire not to fly flags at half-staff following her father's death in 2018.
But Sanders quickly pivoted on defense.
"After spending nearly 2 { years next to the president, I can tell you I witnessed firsthand the president's respect and admiration for the men and women of our armed forces."
Sanders then gave a lengthy justification for Trump's actions.
"And I can say from my experience having watched him over and over and over, I totally disagree with you," said Goldberg before leading into a commercial.
According to The Atlantic story, during a 2017 visit to Arlington National Cemetery with then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, Trump allegedly asked him _ while standing over the grave of Kelly's son, Robert Kelly, a Marine Corps first lieutenant who died in 2010 on active duty _ "I don't get it. What was in it for them?"
The article also cited several sources who claimed that Trump canceled a visit to a military cemetery near Paris during a 2018 trip in the fear that his hair would get tousled in the rain.
