McCain: I may write in Lindsey Graham for president

“I might write in Lindsey Graham,” said McCain, who is running for reelection against Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick.

{mosads}McCain withdrew his support of GOP nominee Donald Trump after a video surfaced Friday of 2005 remarks Trump made in which he details his failed sexual advances toward a married woman and talks about groping women without their consent.

“… Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy,” McCain said on Saturday.

“Cindy, with her strong background in human rights and respect for women, fully agrees with me in this,” he said of his wife. 

McCain and Trump have had a rocky relationship that started more than a year ago, when the real estate mogul said that he didn’t consider McCain, who was tortured for years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, to be a war hero because “he was captured.”

At Monday’s Senate debate, McCain was confronted about his prior support of the GOP nominee and asked why he waited until now to retract his endorsement.

“It’s not pleasant for me to renounce the nominee of my party,” McCain said Monday. “I have daughters.”

But Kirkpatrick pushed back.

“He’s been trying to run from Trump’s disparaging remarks for a year, while endorsing him 60 times,” Kirkpatrick said Monday.

McCain is facing what he has acknowledged as the toughest reelection race of his Senate career.

Democrats felt emboldened that they could make a play for Arizona and that Trump would have a down-ballot drag, particularly in a state with a large Hispanic population.

A few months ago, the GOP senator narrowly led Kirkpatrick, but recent surveys show McCain with a comfortable double-digit lead.