In this week’s episode of her podcast Citizen McCain, the late senator John McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain drew a shocking comparison between Biden’s perceived mental decline and her father’s, saying she knows “what cognitive decline looks like.”
McCain piled onto the debate over Biden’s mental fitness to run for reelection while invoking her father’s disease—a move it’s hard to imagine he would have supported, as he’d performed his duties throughout his health decline, though in a reduced role.
“My dad died of brain cancer,” McCain said on her podcast this week, “I know what cognitive decline looks like in one way or another. I think any caregiver for an aging parent knows that—and to me, I felt saddened and uncomfortable and then very scared,” watching Biden’s debate performance, she continued.
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Biden, whose son Beau Biden died of brain cancer same as John McCain, has been known to share his inspirational thoughts on dealing with grief and the loss of a loved one, as he himself has endured multiple family tragedies while serving in public life.
McCain often praised Biden for his compassion for others—including when he comforted her during an appearance on The View in 2017 as her father’s cancer progressed, in a moment that instantly went viral.
As McCain became choked up while discussing her father’s condition, he moved seats to sit next to her. “One of the things that gave Beau courage was John [McCain],” he told her. “You may remember, when you were a little kid, your dad took care of my Beau,” he said, trying to remind her of her father’s courage and strength and encourage her to hope that he might beat the disease.
Biden and John McCain were old friends and served in the Senate together. Last year, Biden revealed in an interview with Conan O’Brien that he had introduced John to his wife, and Meghan’s mother, Cindy McCain. Two years after that viral moment, in 2019, McCain had called for “more compassion” for Biden after he was accused by several women of touching them in an overly familiar way. The following year, she endorsed him for his 2020 run for the White House.
The tides turned, however, and in 2021, McCain took to X to say that, despite family ties, “I do not recognize this man” and “God help our country,” after he made a speech regarding the end of the Afghanistan war.
Earlier in the week, she tweeted that Biden supporters who still think he can do the job despite his poor debate performance were “the same as the hysterical Trump defenders,” and likened supporters of both party nominees to “cult worship.”
