Klobuchar: McCain Did an Odd Thing at Trump's Inauguration

The late Sen. John McCain apparently predicted President Trump's cozy relationship with dictators well before the president rubbed elbows with Kim Jong Un and Rodrigo Duterte. At an event in Iowa on Saturday, Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar recounted that the Arizona senator "kept reciting to me names of dictators" during Trump's January 2017 inauguration speech. "Because he knew more than any of us what we were facing as a nation … He knew because he knew this man more than any of us did," said the senator from Minnesota, per CNN.

Klobuchar—who was seated next to McCain and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for the address, per the Hill—added, "The arch that we are on, this arch of justice started that day after that dark inauguration." McCain wasn't just muttering his criticism of Trump under his breath; he also used one of his final public statements to rail against the president. "The damage inflicted by President Trump's naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate," he said following Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July 2018, which he described as "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory." Trump hit back often, including last month. (More John McCain stories.)