Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had harsh words for the HBO film "Game Change" as well the book it was based on, saying Sunday that he had no plans to watch a movie that he believes disparages his former running mate Sarah Palin.
"Of course I'm not going to watch it," McCain told host Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. "Why there continues to be such an assault on a fine and decent person, Sarah Palin ... They continue to disparage and attack her person. I admire and respect her, I'm proud of our campaign and I'm humbled by the fact that I was able to give her [the Republican vice-presidential nomination]."
Although the book "Game Change" covered all aspects of the 2008 presidential race, the film version focuses on the inner workings of the McCain-Palin campaign. McCain accused authors John Heilemann and Mark Halperin of painting an unfair portrait of the campaign, and he said that the movie would inevitably do the same.
McCain flatly denied that one scene in "Game Change" ever happened. In the film, when adviser Steve Schmidt tells McCain that a boring white male won't adequately spice up the GOP ticket, McCain responds, "So find me a woman."
Asked whether that happened, McCain said, "Of course not."
Schmidt himself has defended "Game Change" and been critical of his own decisions on the McCain-Palin campaign. "I regret playing a part in a process that yielded someone on the ticket who was not prepared to be president," Schmidt recently told the Washington Post, speaking of former Alaska Gov. Palin. Schmidt said that the film is "the true story" of what happened over the course of ten weeks.
In response to Schmidt, McCain simply said, "I regret that he would make such a comment."
McCain also took issue with the fact that his character, played by Ed Harris, happens to curse a lot in the movie.
"I don’t use coarse language very often," McCain said. "I have a larger vocabulary than that."