At a preview lunch with broadcast news anchors ahead of Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Donald Trump trashed his political rivals, including the late Sen. John McCain, several outlets reported.
Few of his opponents were spared during the private lunch, which was attended by anchors from ABC, NBC, CBS, C-SPAN and Fox News.
“He wrote a book and the book bombed,” the president said of McCain, whose vote against an Obamacare repeal appears to remain a sore spot for Trump even six months after the Arizona Republican’s death, The New York Times reported.
The late senator’s daughter, Meghan McCain, responded quickly after the quote surfaced and called Trump’s behavior “pathetic and telling.”
Trump spurned former Vice President Joe Biden as a “dumb” person he hopes to run against in the 2020 presidential election.
“Biden was never very smart,” Trump told the room, according to the Times. “He was a terrible student. His gaffes are unbelievable. When I say something that you might think is a gaffe, it’s on purpose; it’s not a gaffe. When Biden says something dumb, it’s because he’s dumb.”
As for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Trump dismissed the Democrat as a “nasty son of a bitch,” Bloomberg reported. He pulled out his usual “Pocahontas” slur for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).