Top aides from McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign not invited to funeral: report

Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) former presidential campaign manager Steve Schmidt and senior adviser Nicolle Wallace were not invited to the late Republican senator’s funeral services, according to a Thursday report.

Schmidt and Wallace, who have since joined MSNBC as a political analyst and host, respectively, join McCain’s former running mate in Sarah Palin on the list of those from his inner circle who were snubbed, according to Politico.

McCain’s longtime strategist John Weaver also wasn’t invited, per the report that cited three sources who spoke off the record.

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McCain’s stunning selection of Palin as his vice presidential nominee in August 2008 was criticized by Schmidt and the GOP establishment after the campaign was handily defeated by then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Wallace reportedly often clashed with Palin to the point that she admitted to not having voted at all in the election that year.

“That cathedral will be filled with people who stabbed McCain in the front. Schmidt and Nicolle and Weaver stabbed him in the back and you can’t find a single McCain loyalist who will say different or feels different,” according to one source in the Politico story.

The Hill has reached out to Schmidt and Wallace for comment.

Schmidt and Wallace are among MSNBC’s most outspoken critics of President Trump, who also was not invited to McCain’s ceremonies in Arizona or Washington, D.C.

Vice President Pence will speak at a memorial event at the Capitol on Friday.

Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush are also scheduled to deliver eulogies at the National Cathedral on Saturday.

McCain, who would have been 82 on Wednesday, will be buried Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.