John McCain’s son endorses Kamala, citing Trump’s Arlington visit—his father used Arlington in 1999 campaign ad

There was strong backlash against McCain at the time, to such an extent that he was forced to remove the footage of himself at the cemetery from his campaign ad. Collin Rugg had the receipts, referencing back to an LA Times headline from 1999 that read "McCain to Remove Arlington Footage From Campaign Ad."

"It just blows me away," Jimmy McCain told CNN's Jake Tapper. "These men and women that are laying in the ground there have no choice" to be or not be in a campaign ad, per CNN. "I just think that for anyone who’s done a lot of time in their uniform, they just understand that inherently — that it’s not about you there. It’s about these people who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their country."

"Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain will remove footage of Arlington National Cemetery from his campaign’s biographical television ad," the LA Times report read, going on to say, "The Army said this week that the Arizonan’s campaign did not ask permission to film him at the cemetery. Any request to do so would have been denied because partisan activity is banned at Army installations, the Army said."

The ad showed McCain walking through gravestones, with the voiceover that he was "never forgetting those heroes with whom he served" and highlighting his military service. It is unclear if McCain was looking to defend his father's use of the cemetery for his political ambitions.

"Many of these men and women, who served their country, chose to do something greater than themselves," Jimmy McCain told Tapper. "They woke up one morning, they signed on the dotted line, they put their right hand up, and they chose to serve their country. And that’s an experience that Donald Trump has not had. And I think that might be something that he thinks about a lot."

McCain spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper about Trump, his father, and his anger that Trump had been at the memorial. While interviewing McCain, Tapper repeated the debunked claim that Trump called veterans "suckers and losers." McCain spoke fondly about his father, saying that his switch to the Democrat Party is because he cares about his country and "cares about making it better." McCain said he'd be voting for Kamala Harris in the upcoming election.