I didn’t see this yesterday, but it’s sort of amazing: apparently, Donald Trump wasn’t the only one shunned by John McCain in his final days, weeks and months. The McCain family has let it be known that Sarah Palin is unwelcome at Senator McCain’s funeral too. You guys, I think we should give John McCain some credit: even in death, he was such a magnificently grudge-holding bitch. If anything, I like him more him now. McCain famously chose Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008 without even doing cursory background research on her. Palin helped his campaign at first, but her ignorance, lies and dog-whistle racism ended up destroying the campaign in the final weeks. Palin ended up being the Ghost of GOP Future, and apparently McCain held a grudge about all of it.
President Donald Trump and former John McCain presidential running mate Sarah Palin are not invited to memorial services for the iconic Arizona senator, multiple sources tell PEOPLE.
“Two names you won’t see on the guest list: Trump and Palin,” says a Capitol Hill source with knowledge of funeral plans for McCain, who died of brain cancer Saturday at age 81.
“Invitations were not extended” to the two political figures, confirms Carla Eudy, a fundraiser who has worked with and been friends with the McCain family for decades. A source with knowledge of the funeral arrangements adds that several longtime McCain staffers were also removed from the invite list in recent days by Eudy. The fundraiser, who helped plan the memorial services, did not specifically address where the requests originated, nor how they were conveyed. Speculation in Washington, D.C., is that they came from “the family.”
“My guess is, it came from Cindy,” says a source close to the McCain family. “She is very protective of John’s memory and legacy. She’s also a grieving widow. I think she wants to get through this as best she can.”
Speculation also has focused on the process of disinviting someone to a funeral.
“Donald Trump and Sarah Palin were not served official notice outright,” says the source close to the McCain family. “I want to make that clear. It wasn’t a no-trespass order. They won’t be turned away by guards if they show up at the funeral.” The stay-away messages were sent through intermediaries, the friend tells PEOPLE. The messages were received, sources say.
A source goes on to claim that McCain and Palin always had a nice “friendship,” and I do think McCain genuinely felt bad about choosing Palin because she was initially so traumatized by the heat of the spotlight. But I think Palin was likely not invited simply because no one in the McCain family wanted the spectacle that Palin brings. Her whole shtick these days is conspiracy theories and ignorance, like she’s Alex Jones with a bad wig. John McCain wanted his funeral and memorial service to have some dignity. I can’t say I blame him.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Yeah it would be a spectacle and those two would make it about them.
I love McCain and his shade!
Initially I was surprised because Palin issued statements re McCain that were trashy style dignified, and a way to remind the basey-base how wrong it was for trump to have verbally abused McCain. While we know Palin brings the underbelly circus, she’s also a beacon for the worst among trump minions?
Basically, they worked together for one year. He only chose her because they wouldn’t let him have who he wanted so he went along with the party pick, who was pushed by Limbaugh as a counter to the Democrats not choosing Clinton. They actually told him that women would be so angry over Obama getting the nomination over Clinton that they would swing to his side because of Palin. He didn’t have a longstanding knowledge of her beforehand. They never worked together again. They weren’t friends. There’s no reason for her to attend the funeral. One of the wakes would be one thing but not the funeral
McCain may have hated Trump — but by choosing Sarah Palin and then not publicly denouncing her when she took her post-fact, racist, it’s-ok-to-be-a-nutjob shtick mainstream — he had a central role in paving the way for Trump. He stood by while the Tea Party took over his party. It was only when they inevitably began to transition to the even more horrible party of Trump that he spoke out.
Yep. I hold respect for John McCain for his service but Palin was the beginning of where we are now politically.
I voted for Clinton in those primaries, and there was no way I was going to vote for a ticket that had that clown show just because she was a woman. Color me surprised that Rush Limbaugh was out of touch.
I know that was a big part in them selecting her, but I still can’t believe they thought all those women would just blindly vote for her because of her gender.
@lucy2, I completely agree. Her being a woman played no factor for me. I will fully admit, Palin is the #1 reason I did NOT vote for John McCain that year. And it had nothing to do with her gender. It was because she was so batsh*t cray cray.
Couldn’t he have defied their advice? That’s one aspect I’ve never fully understood.
He could have defied it but the campaign would have collapsed right then and there. Repubs didn’t really like McCain to begin with but choosing someone like Lieberman? There were rumors that that state delegations were prepared to walk out of the convention if he did that. Obama could have saved money spent on campaigning because the election would have been over.
Not even a year. They announced McCain’s pick on August 29, 2008 (so 10 years ago yesterday which is hard to believe that’s how long the world has had to deal with Sarah Palin). The election was in November. So basically 2 months. They were in close quarters for a few months which doesn’t exactly justify an invite to his funeral. I think McCain always had regret for foisting Sarah Palin into the public realm. I’m sure he was cordial to her up until he died and apart from one comment he never publicly denounced her (I wish he had). I doubt they have really spent any meaningful time together since he lost the 2008 election.
Wow, was it really only two months? Those were two LONG ASS months. The only thing that feels longer is a Trump presidency.
I always felt that Palin was part of the beginning of the Tea Partiers, and where the Republican party is today. The extreme, hypocritical lunatics, no longer Conservatives.
Agreed. We didn’t get into the situation we are in now out of the blue. This has been festering for years, if not decades.
I think it’s great that the McCain family isn’t inviting her but I do note that his cynical campaign consultants who encouraged him to pick her will be front and center at the funeral crying their eyes out. Lot of them make the news show circuit raling against Trump without taking one iota of blame for Palin, the proto-Trump.
The Tea Partiers emerged before Palin but she launched them into the mainstream with her breathtakingly snarky, appalling convention speech. She really did unleash the forces of darkness like no one else prior to that.
The Republican Party started going off the rails in 1964 with Goldwater’s ultra right John Birch nonsense; then Nixon with his Southern Strategy dog whistles; then one of Reagan’s earliest campaign stops was Philadelphia, MS, site of the Chaney, Goodman, Schwerner murders. The nastiness has accelerated to the point where we are now. A cesspool of hatred, racism, misogyny, xenophobia and corruption.
The evil thing about Sarah Palin is she intentionally dumbed down a low educated base to increase petrochemical reliance. Her whole schtick was to denigrate the environmental movement and control
Alaskan oil. Since libtards are ecologists the strategy was to villify anything remotely liberal including civil rights & basic social programs. So yeah – F SP- John made up for that mistake by dissing her at his wake. Ha!
HAHAHAHAHA
I admit I first thought that Palin was okay, but after her dolt family started making headlines, it’s clear that she is not a good mother and really over-marketed herself. Then her dolt daughter got pregnant not just once, but twice out of wedlock and started up all that DRAMA when she ended up engaged to that decent marine who distinguished himself in battle.
I don’t give a toss about her parenting skills, or how many kids her daughter had out of ‘wedlock’ (which I don’t count as bad parenting, anyway – people can have as many kids as they like, with or without marriage, man). I am more concerned by her blatant bigotry, racism and basic stupidity. Remember that ‘I can see Russia form my house’ comment? FAR more disturbing than her kid being pregnant on the campaign trail. One doesn’t need to be a ‘good’ parent to be a good leader/politician. But being a good human, and vaguely smart is kind of important.
Amen to that.
Well she has proven to be both a bad parent and a bad human being. And Bristol is both a girl who got pregnant without being married, and an idiot who parrots her mother.
I’m no Palin fan but it was Tina Fey who made the “I can see Russia from my house” comment. But it was very much something Palin would say in all her ignorance, which is probably why people remember it, lol. I think she said something like parts of Russia were visible from Alaska or something stupid like as “proof” of her foreign policy expertise. LMAO
She is/was woefully unprepared, ignorant, bigoted, and hateful, and that’s was worried me about her. Thank the heavens they lost and she’s faded from any seat of power.
But her family is messy with a capital M – drama, violence, nastiness, etc, and it does say a lot about her.
Esmom – I stand corrected – what she said was “They’re our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska”
Which is IMO equally stupid, but admittedly less quotable than the Tina Fey version.
Tina’s portrayal was a lot like Alec’s — spot-on, and the scripts were often incredibly close to actual quotes.
The first time Tina portrayed Sarah on SNL, it was on cable news the next day. My dad was almost convinced it HAD to be Sarah. They were doing split-screens to show how close the resemblance and word salads were.
Those skits provided laughs during those few months of finding out how woefully beyond her depth she (the actual Sarah) really was.
Actually, Bristol getting pregnant out of wedlock not once but twice is relevant. At the time Bristol was going around promoting abstinence and abstinence education instead of sex education so she wasn’t just a hypocrite and an idiot for getting pregnant twice but also inadvertently became the poster girl for why sex education is important.
You forget though, her daughter was a “spokesperson” for the anti-abortion, and abstinence groups. She was put out there front and center, going to “talk” at schools about the importance of saving oneself for marriage. And thennnnn…. there comes the baby belly. F&*%ing hypocrites ane lunatics, all of them!
My brother has always claimed to admire Palin’s looks (really just to annoy me) but said recently that he finally realized he was actually attracted to Tina Fey playing Palin, so he switched to being a big Tina Fey fan….
He’s the one who thinks Trump spends his evenings digging a tunnel from his room in the White House to the US Mint (or wherever they keep all the money in DC). We read a lot of Uncle Scrooge comic books in our youth and have the image of the rich old duck diving into his money bin embedded in our brains.
Scrooge paid his nephew Donald Duck five cents an hour for dangerous adventures and also for pacing around in a circle in his worry room, to do all his worrying for him. That sounds rather Trumpian, although Scrooge was a lot smarter and kinder.
Though McCain and I have some fundamental disagreements on pretty much everything, I do respect him. He served our country, he survived being a POW, and he did seem to have a broader outlook verses his Republican party. I think Sarah was a very poor excuse to try to get the Hillary vote in 2008. Unfortunately, someone didn’t do their homework and she turned out to be a total nutjob. McCain always seemed more sensible and it was confusing about Palin because again, she’s a nut job.
If she attended, she would absolutely try to make it all about her.
Remember when she tried to give her own concession speech after they lost? She had to be told no, VP candidates don’t do that.
There were so many gaffes and messy moments in that campaign that I had almost forgotten that one. Someone did not do even basic vetting on her, and McCain seemed completely embarrassed toward the end.
As for the funeral, I understand the survivors’ decision as to who should attend. No one who is grieving needs any attention seeking/unstable/cruel person in attendance. It’s not worth it.
Exactly. If they want to be in on it so bad, let them hold their own separate memorial service.
Considering she didn’t even know what the job of VP entailed, that doesn’t surprised me at all.
She’s so much like drump with her ignorance, hatred, hypocrisy. Her attendance would only traumatize.
And the only reason why she would never ascend to the top job is because she’s a woman (GOPers like their women at home and behind the scenes) and I think Pudding won’t select her because she cannot be controlled.
I read Megan McCain’s book about the campaign. The family absolutely ended up hating Palin so I’m not surprised she’s not invited.
John McCain must have not cared about her too because toward the end, he did a funny skit with Tina Fey on SNL (they ran that when news of his passing went out). If they were buds no way would he participate in that.
I’m glad even in death McCain is giving those jerks a big FU.
Honestly this is not really shade, more likely this is a part of his legacy that McCain would rather people wouldn’t remember. Hopefully it’s a part that won’t be successfully swept under the rug, because it’s an important part of how we got to where we are now.
No, its part in parcel of petulant McCain could be.
Palin cost McCain the Election.
She is a first rate nutjob.
I agree with no invite for Trump or Palin.
Funerals are for the remaining family to have some closure and the services are up to them.
I’m a life long Dem but McCain was a P.O.W. and Trump hit a new low when to disrespected him. McCain was from a family of people who served.
Trump has zero business mocking anyone who served when he himself did not serve.
Bull hockey. The ONLY time McCain’s poll number got above Obama’s is after she got the VP slot. Post convention bounce probably but she didn’t cost him anything. McCain lost because of himself.
That’s not entirely true. I was on the fence and I would have considered voting for him. However the more Palin talked the more the needle moved over to Barry. So yeah for those of us who are on the fence, that made a big difference.
I was never going to vote for him, but if not for Sarah Palin on the ticket as the spare a heartbeat away from the Presidency – I wouldn’t have worried if McCain got elected. He would have been a competent President.
I’ve always opposed various policies of every President I’ve ever voted for, so I don’t expect to be lock step with anybody. I do want somebody who won’t blow up the planet and bankrupt the country filling his own pockets, though. That used to be a low bar. Not since Trump…
Ha
Given the spectacle her family creates, I don’t blame them.
I have liked McCain, as a daughter of a Vietnam vet, his service tremendously influenced me. Once Palin came on board, listening to her speak and try to debate Joe Biden, I was like, sorry… going to research this Obama guy. Ended up voting Obama.
I cannot believe she still gets air time and people even care who she is. UGH, talk about a nothingburger.
I wish McCain had spoken out about the whole Palin thing. I think he was actually trying to do a good thing with his choice–have a woman as VP, for one thing. I’m sure he quickly realized it was a mistake. I wish he’d taken ownership of it and spoke to the whole thing. He could have done it diplomatically and politely…and I think it would have better to do so overall.
Well that may still happen. Apparently McCain filmed a documentary that will be released tomorrow. People on Twitter are already saying that he talked about the Orange Nazi in it.
Oooh, I’m going to keep an eye out for that video! I Hope McCain calls out Trump 110%.
That would be fabulous if McCain comes out and rips Trump apart..from the grave, yet!
Sounds like teenagers talking about who got an invite to the popular kid’s party and who didn’t.
I am HERE for the McCain afterlife shade. I don’t even consider it petty; you get to invite who you want to a wedding and there’s statistically a good chance you may have another one day lol. A funeral? Not so much. If you die suddenly and unexpectedly there’s not much you can say about it, but if you know in advance, why not plan who you want and don’t want at your final big event? I know I’d make a list of invites and a list to give to someone trusted of a few who wouldn’t be welcome. I have no problem with this.
I would like to go on record as saying that she is not invited to my funeral either. Or my birthday tea and she can forget Thanksgiving too. The mean ole scary b hole!
Palin was the demise of McCain. Crass & not bright.
I read an article that said McCain had not stayed in touch with Palin at all and that he would not even mention her name over the last few years. So it does not sound like it was only family who did not want Palin to attend.
According to several insider books about the McCain campaign, the polls were showing his numbers sagging and his campaign people convinced him that a woman on the ticket would help him. They had no one in mind and began to look around for a female who could “fit”. They came up with a very short list and Palin was chosen on “surface” factors. No one had vetted her to any extent and McCain had only met her once or twice, both times at large Republican events.
When the Palin Clan arrived in town for the Republican Convention it became immediately apparent to campaign officials that the entire family would need to be groomed, clothed, and shod. Arrangements were made for a large local department store to be open exclusively for this purpose the next evening and the family members went with individual shoppers and were outfitted head to toe with enough outfits for the duration of the convention. The tab was several hundred thousand dollars.