The late Republican Senator John McCain compared Donald Trump to dictators, according to 2020 Democratic contender Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
During her campaign stop in Iowa, Klobuchar told the gatherering of 200 people that she sat next to McCain during Trump's presidential inauguration and heard the senator rattling off the names of dictators as Trump delivered his speech.
Klobuchar recalled:
"I sat on that stage between Bernie and John McCain, and John McCain kept reciting to me names of dictators during that speech because he knew more than any of us what we were facing as a nation."
She said of the late Arizonan who was also a close friend:
"He understood it. He knew because he knew this man more than any of us did."
People weren't surprised to learn of McCain's comparisons.
Trump's inauguration speech evoked authoritarian populism.
McCain and Trump were known adversaries.
During the first 18 months of his presidency, the Senator criticized many of Trump's policies and attacked him on the campaign trail, calling his approach to politics a "half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems."
Trump slammed McCain for casting his vote that killed the Obamacare repeal.
Trump's feud with McCain began as early as 1999 when he refused to call the Vietnam War veteran a hero.
During a 60 Minutes interview with Dan Rather, he said:
"He was captured … Does being captured make you a hero? I don't know. I'm not sure."
Trump revisited his statement in 2015 and said the Arizona Republican was "not a war hero."
He added:
"I like people that weren't captured."
McCain passed away on August 25, 2018, after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, but that didn't spur the President to lay his animosity to rest.
In March, Trump whined about not receiving a "thank you" for "approving" the Senator's funeral arrangements.
Trump reportedly rejected making an official statement on McCain's death and prematurely returned the flag atop the White House to full staff.
However, with Klobuchar's recent anecdote, McCain seems to continue to denounce Trump from the grave; making sure the President will never have the last word.
