Sen. John McCain has never been a favorite among Arizona’s far-right fringe, who consider him too moderate on border issues, mostly because as a member of the Gang of Eight in 2013 he dared to even mention “immigration reform” (a plan that went nowhere).
This year the rightwing attack on Sen. McCain is being leveled by former state senator Kelli “Chemtrail” Ward, who’s bought into just about every kooky Michael Savage conspiracy invented. In 2014, Sen. Ward joined a half dozen other GOP legislative tools who caravanned to Cliven Bundy’s Nevada compound, so they could lend support to the criminal rancher and say nasty things about the Feds. Ward’s mighty fine supporters, like Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes, have said publicly that Sen. McCain should be killed. Nice company there, Kelli.
Back in 2010, McCain faced a similar rightwing challenge, this time from former US Congressman J.D. “Foghorn Leghorn” Hayworth, who, with the help of Sen. Russell Pearce and other bigots, kept the anti-immigration pressure on McCain full-time. Remember, this was the era of SB 1070 and Mexican hatin’ was the major plank in the Arizona GOP platform. So, to prove his anti-immigrant bona fides, Sen. McCain aired his infamous “complete the danged fence” ad, as he walked along the border in Nogales with Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county is 100 miles north of the border.
Sheriff Babeu, an Arpaio wannabe, had his own problems after the ad aired. As he ran for congress in 2012, nearly nude photos of the buffed lawman showed up on social media, then his undocumented male lover said the sheriff was blackmailing him with a deportation threat to keep quiet. “Gay” + “undocumented” are two things that don’t go over well in Babeu’s conservative district, and he exited the race (he’s running for congress again this year).
Sen. McCain recently acknowledged that having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket won’t do him any favors in Arizona, where approximately 22 percent of registered voters are Latino—the “rapists” and “murderers” Trump described on his campaign’s first day. Not surprisingly, efforts are underway to register even more Latino voters, and Trump is proving to be a useful catalyst. Heck, when he spoke in the Phoenix suburb of Fountain Hills in March, mostly Hispanic protestors blocked traffic and delayed the meeting for hours (causing Fountain Hills GOP legislator John Kavanaugh to craft a bill that makes similar protests a Class 1 misdemeanor: 6 months in jail and a $2,500 fine).
Polls show Sen. McCain beating Ward handily in the GOP primary, but in November’s general election the five-term senator is in a statistical tie with Democratic challenger and former Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, whose new ad (below) connects the ugly dots, and points out that the Arizona senator is supporting Trump, even after the blowhard said McCain is not a war hero because “I like people who weren’t captured” (while draft-dodger Trump served with distinction in the bedroom).
So, Kirkpatrick’s team uploaded another ad this week but it was quickly taken down. See, the Dems were just trying to help out Spanish speakers when they uploaded to YouTube Sen. McCain’s “complete the danged fence” ad in its entirety and without edits, except for one thing: they added a Spanish translation. Evidently McCain’s people were not happy that Kirkpatrick shared the 2010 ad, even though its message is clearly in step with Trump’s anti-immigrant bashing:
A campaign ad for Sen. John McCain’s 2010 reelection bid was blocked on YouTube earlier this week, per a request from the Arizona Republican's 2016 reelection campaign.
The ad was uploaded by the campaign of McCain challenger Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), and it was unmodified except for the addition of Spanish subtitles. The spot shows McCain walking by the border fence and telling a Border Patrol agent to "complete the danged fence."
McCain’s staff said they did not order the ad pulled from YouTube because of its content, but because it is copyrighted material. Yeah, and if you believe that I have a border fence to sell you.