Lindsey Graham: Trump disparaging John McCain 'pisses me off to no end'

Erin Kelly, USA TODAY Published 2:19 p.m. ET Aug. 30, 2018 | Updated 7:42 p.m. ET Aug. 30, 2018

Sen. Lindsey Graham honored the life of the late Sen. John McCain on the Senate floor on Tuesday. McCain died at 81 on Saturday after a year-long battle with brain cancer. (Aug. 2 AP

WASHINGTON – John McCain's best friend in the Senate, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Thursday that President Donald Trump's negative remarks about McCain "pisses me off to no end."

"It bothers me greatly when the president says things about John McCain. It pisses me off to no end, and I let the president know it," the Republican said on CBS This Morning.

Trump frequently criticized McCain, even questioning whether the decorated Navy pilot was really a war hero since he was captured by the North Vietnamese when his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War. McCain spent more than five years as a POW in Hanoi.

"He’s not a war hero," Trump said in July 2015. "He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured."

As president, Trump repeatedly attacked McCain for the senator's decisive 2017 vote against repealing Obamacare. Trump repeated that criticism at campaign rallies even after McCain was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The senator's daughter, Meghan McCain, called Trump's behavior "gross" in June.

Graham also said Thursday that he found Trump's handling of McCain's death "disturbing." The president initially ignored tradition by refusing to immediately put out a proclamation honoring McCain, who died last Saturday of brain cancer.

The White House also raised its flags from half-staff to full-staff on Monday until heavy criticism from veterans groups pressured them to lower the flags again. The flags are now scheduled to remain lowered until after McCain is buried Sunday at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

"The way he's handled the passing of John is just, was disturbing," Graham said about Trump on CBS. "We finally got it right. … I am not going to give up on the idea of working with this president. The best way I can honor John McCain is help my country."

Graham said he didn't call the president about bringing the flag back down to half-staff but "I called some people around him."

Asked what Trump could learn from McCain, Graham said, "What I would tell the president: you've got a lot of people you think are treating you unfairly. Fight back."

"But you're going to have to be a big man in a big office," Graham said. "John McCain was a big man, worthy of a big country. Mr. President, you need to be the big man that the presidency requires."

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