McCain: I 'Didn't Love America' Until Held Prisoner (VIDEO)

Republicans have hammered Michelle Obama for her remarks in February that she was proud of America "for the first time in my adult life." Tonight, however, Dan Abrams showed footage he uncovered of a Fox News interview with John McCain on March 13, 2008, in which McCain said, "I didn't really love America until I was deprived of her company."

Abrams thinks McCain's comments could undermine the "right wing's steady attacks against Michelle Obama."

[WATCH]

Comments

[Independent voter]

Why don't we talk about McCain's wives?

He came home from the war and found his first wife disfigured - so he screwed around with the beer princess and within a month of giving the first wife the bum's rush, he married the beer princess.

The beer princess, the one that McCain called a c*nt in public was a drug addict stealing drugs from her own charities.

Bring it on McCain

[gotborked]

I won't defend McCain's marital decisions, but wouldn't it be contrary to liberal/Deomcrat social policy to fault someone for getting a divorce?

[GolfingDevil05]

I agree. There are plenty of good reasons to not vote for him. This isn't one that will tip things for me, and I hope not for most people.

[mari2JJ]

I am no Democrat but actually Democrats do not rush to the divorce court. Take the Clintons for instance. they worked through his problems and now seem to have a loving relationship. I am always astounded when we Republicans are so quick to exhibit this double standard, we are for marriage till we are against it. We encourage and believe in redemption until it should apply to a Democrat. We talk about the evils of character assassination until we are guilty of it re the Obamas. We need to clean up our own house before worrying about any Demacrat's morality. The DemocratIC party is just like our party. It is made up of a full measure of sinners just like Republicans have.

[JFaye]

This is not simply about a divorce... rather character. It's the story of a husband, who abandoned (equally important emotionally) his injured wife during a time when she needed him the most. What's with these family value conservatives anyway ... Remember Newt Gingrich???

[LAWTON]

That's how Bush and the right hve remained in power. He knows and relies on the fact the democrats would never stoop so low! It's time the Democrats start playing the republican game thats prove so sucessful. The stakes are too high for them to keep playing Mr. and Ms. Nice. Again the stakes are too god damned high. The swift boaters are hiding in the lurch.like the trolls they are. We best be ready for them and realize that the means justifies the end this time like no other .

ITS TOO DAMNED IMPORTANT TO NOT START PLAYING DIRTY. THEN ITS TIME TO CLEAN OUT OUR OWN RAT'S NEST LIKE THOSE DEMOCRATS WHO VOTED AMNESTY FOR THE COMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES WHO WERE COMPLICIT IN THE FISA RAID ON OUR CONSTITUTION.

[devanate]

It's not the actions. It's the hypocrisy of being in a party who's all about values & family & marital fidelity... and then behaving in a matter completely anti-thetical to what you espouse.

[Keith52]

I must also say that the rhetoric in this campaign from the right wing pundits is reaching unprecedented levels. And they had better watch it. If they want to keep going in this direction they are going to find out who the minorities really are. The minorities are really these fat, white, right wing jerks. And they don't have the stamina or the brains for what will happen if they keep this up. The more they talk the dumber they look.

[rh654]

The Obama Campaign and the 527's need to get this plastered everywhere!!!

While I would love to have a Presidential race based on ideas and facts - the fact is negative campaigning works.

A Presidential Race is a zero sum game - One Person Wins - One Person Loses - there is no "win-win" scenario.

This is not an Ivy League Debate - this is a street fight for power and who will control the future of America.

Obama MUST do whatever is necessary to win - period - if he is not willing to do that he should have never ran for the office.

[shystar]

He started that by not taking public funding for the race.

[gotborked]

When you look at the two comments in context, there is a distinction that makes all the difference in the world.

McCain was commenting on the shortcomings of himself as a youth.

Obama was commenting on the shortcomings of you and me as a country.

One is endearing, the other (remains) insulting.

[zippywpinhead]

nonsense...

[slinkymom]

And she was 100% right. The ONLY people upset by her comment are those that are guilty of continuing policies and practices that are racist and harmful to others. I have witnessed racial slurs from my friends and family in situations where they thought everyone around them felt the same. That's when you see the dark under belly of the racisit monster. When these slurs are made in front of me, I make it very clear where I stand and how offensive the person's behavior is.

You cannot live in this country without hearing and/or seeing how ignorant, racist, and rude, some Americans are. FYI - I am a white, blond, blue-eyed woman and I experienced first hand how lucky I was to be born that way. I am not proud of some people in this country and if you're offended by that, then you know you are part of the problem.

[LinusBern]

The underlying message being EVERYTHING is 100% great with the USA! Anyone who thinks there is anything to criticize is an America-hating commie.

Did I get your point?

[Iluvbush3]

Some f***ing hero. I guess by that standard all in prison now are american heros too. Opertunist f***ing Repug.

[Keith52]

Lars Larson, You are the most sleazy, scummy, pathetic, idiot. What a monkey.

[Axolotl]

a real dbag.

[christieZ]

Scum of the earth.

[max]

Why did McCain hate America before he was a POW? I've always been proud of my country......troubling..

[SpaceCadet]

If the Democrats were as sleazy as the Republicons, they could just delete the last part of McCain's sentence so that it reads: "I didn't love America." Period. Michelle Obama said she was "for the first time in my adult life I'm _really _ proud to be an American. The GOP slime-molds who put together that campaign ad that smeared her deleted the word "really", although you can hear the leading "r" sound of the word in the ad. Their audio editing skills are not so hot.

[thinklib]

C'mon, all haters of the Right.

Are you seriously trying to assert that McCain didn't love America?

He was simply emphasizing that 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'.

Good grief. Is there no honest dialogue any more? This makes liberals look very desperate to attack McCain. Liberals don't need to be desperate. Liberals have the most likable candidate to come along since Reagan. Since the advent of television, likability has always been much more important than policy.

[slinkymom]

Funny. When the shoe is on the other foot, you Republicans all of a sudden cry foul. Don't start something you can't finish.

[ObamaFarmer]

I'll turn your question around: are you seriously trying to assert that Michelle Obama didn't love America?

The context of her sentence makes it clear what she was trying to say. (Note the words 'really proud') Just as the context of his sentence makes it clear what he was trying to say.

The problem is when you attack one without the other. It's intellectually dishonest. And it's so phony, when you realize that Michelle is not running for anything (unlike McCain). To make this an issue is such a sign of desperation.

[devanate]

What I think America should take from this, both Michelle Obama and John McCains statements, is that we are not born loving our country and no matter how much we are tought it's history and indoctrinated into patriotism - it takes something extraordinary to really make us appreciate it on a personal level.

For Michelle Obama, it was the realization that a black person actually has a chance of becoming president. That equality may become a reality someday afterall.

For McCain, it was (at the time) an indefinite incarceration in a foreign country away from family and his own culture and freedoms.

Think back all ye patriots, when did you first start to really love your country on a personal level, beyond what you were tought growing up?

For me, it didn't completely, fully set in until the constitution began being undermined by the Bush administration. Until I saw so much that I had taken for granted all my life slowly slipping away with the Patriot Act and the War on Terror, with the loss of Habeas Corpus and so many other atrocities this current government has committed against our beloved way of life. So, I guess I have something to thank Bush for afterall.

[mollysgran]

devanate,

you have really hit the nail on the head! Thank you for a sensitive and thoughtful post.

My wake-up call was a trip to Russia in 1972. While I was fascinated with all the history and art and beauty, I was constantly reminded of the differences between democracy in the US and communism in the USSR. I wept grateful tears when I returned home.

But in the past 7 1/2 years under the Bush administration there have been many times that I have shed tears of shame, disappointment and disbelief that such damage could be done by a group of people who claim to "love" America, but really don't. Who claim to be "Patriots" but really aren't., and who are willing to destroy the best that America can be in order to gain power and to enrich themselves at the expense of others.

[SixtiesRebel]

Read this:

As a 78 year old American of African descent, I feel compelled to respond to all this 'much ado about nothing' when it comes to the statement that Michelle Obama made about the fact that this is the first time in her adult life that she has been proud to be an American. The country needs to hear this from the Black perspective.  Long before I was born, my grandfather Joseph Burleson, owned a considerable amount of land in oil rich Texas ; Because during that era, Blacks could not vote, nor could they contest anything in the courts of the United States, my grandfather's land was STOLEN by his White neighbor. My grandfather, who was literate and better educated than my grandmother, drove to town. Seeing my grandfather leave, the covetous neighbor asked my grandmother to show him the deed to the property. He snatched it. She could not insist that he give it back, nor could she have reported this THEFT to the sheriff because of the fact that Blacks had no rights in the 1800's. The prevailing law at that time was he who held the deed owned the land.
      
      Do you think that is something that I am PROUD OF? Right now I should be living off the oil and gas royalties.
      
          

[davidsnotinvolved]

SixtiesRebel -- and let's not forget the Black Wall Street massacre in the 20's.

[Genisa]

Wow. That's terrible. But see, it seems to me that some whites will not recognize that life in America for blacks is TOTALLY different from whites. It's like there is not even the slightest attempt to look at it from the other side and try to understand where we are coming from. I guess they don't have to. It's obviously easier to label us as "angry" or "reverse racist" (the most laughable thing eva) than to try and understand where we've come from and what we have to continually deal with.

One of the constant arguments I hear is, "well I wasn't around during slavery", no of course they weren't but they don't understand the privilege they have in just being born white.

[hjo4]

Were these people proud and loved America while her American Black citizens were being beaten, attacked by dogs, drenched and drowned with water hoses, physically attacked and others horrors for only wanting what others take for granted and as a birthright. I was never as proud of my country and fellow Americans as the night was when Senator Obama announced he was he DNC nominee. I cried, we as Americans have made many steps towards healing the racial divide and we have a long way to go.But understand until recently there were and still is two Americas for many American citizens.Although Mrs.Obama made her statement clear, I understood what she meant. Will the McCains or any other American say they were proud of America when she legally allowed racial discrimination in this country against her most loyal citizens and allow them to be beaten and jailed for asking for equality .Could they make that statement.

[Hastings]

Someone didn't get the memo to Stephen Elliott. His blog up today on this website is entitled, As Long As We're Talking About Michelle Obama, Did You Know Cindy Mccain Was A Drug Addict? Opps, I forgot, he is a radical chic leftie so it is ok for him to write a smear hit piece about Cindy McCain. It is comforting to know that the radical left is still in their "you can't do what we do but we pretend that we don't do it " groove. All is well.

[ATL78]

I love this! Not because I truly think McCane doesn't love his country (whatever that means!) But, I love the hypocrisy of it all.

The Republican trolls are in full force trying to defend this and pointing to context and what he REALLY meant. But they wouldn't hear it when Michelle was misquoted! This all reeks of racism.

Because of this country's racist history, it is all but expected that Blacks would have some level of anger and it is feared that they may turn that anger into revenge. That's what this whole thing is about. Point out the ANGER and lack of BLIND trust for the government, and you have tapped into racist fears. But McCane's comments won't carry as much weight because 1. All Whites love America...right? 2. Angry whites aren't scary (despite McVeigh, Rudolph, et al.) McCane is known to have a bad temper, call his wife out of her name and has even resorted to physical attacks. But the Obamas are catching hell because Michelle said she's never been REALLY proud of our political process until now.

Good strategy but NOT THIS TIME!

[marchfool]

of course john mccain loves america.

and of course he loved america before he was a pow.

and of course he loved america when he signed up for the navy.

he comes from a proud tradition of service to our country dating back to the revolutionary war.

what he obviously meant was that he didn't fully appreciate what it meant to be an american until he was deprived of his liberty as a pow.

just as michelle obama's words were twisted - this is yet another twist but this time from the other side.

john mccain is a true american hero... plain and simple.

anyone who questions john mccain's patriotism is as crazy as anyone who questions barack or michelle obama's patriotism.

wake up folks.

these are all stupid media distractions from the vital issues that face our country and what this presidential election is all about.

the change that obama will bring begins with each of us and it begins now.

[nowRnever]

Demand that FOX put an end to race-baiting and fear-mongering. Go to http://colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=1836-413482