OPINION — If there was ever a time and a place where the voice of John McCain was missing from Congress, this is it — at the intersection of an impeachment, an election and a constitutional crisis.
The late Arizona Republican was one of the few members famously ready and willing to stand on a political island if he thought it was the right thing to do. So it’s easy to imagine him waiting in the well of the Senate to flash a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down on the fate of President Donald Trump, with cable pundits everywhere holding their breath until he did.
But more importantly, McCain was also the foremost expert and advocate in Congress for Ukraine, the country that served as the backdrop for the events that have led Trump to the doorstep of his own impeachment. Why is that important? Because there’s no way that Rudy Giuliani could have marauded so freely in Ukraine or that Trump could have pulled the ambassador in Kyiv with less than two hours notice or that the Office of Management and Budget and Mick Mulvaney could have withheld vital aid for Ukrainian troops as they did without the senator from Arizona making it known to the world. Loudly.
View the complete November 18 commentary by Patricia Murphy on The Roll Call website here.