There was something missing from President's Trump talk during his signing of the $716 billion military spending bill named after Arizona Sen. John McCain Monday: McCain's name.
According to the New York Times, Trump talked for 28 minutes at Fort Drum in New York about the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act but made no mention of McCain.
It's no secret Trump and Arizona's 81-year-old senior senator, who remains at the family's northern Arizona home battling brain cancer, haven't seen eye-to-eye, to put it lightly.
But it wasn't just the president who forgot to mention the man for whom the bill is named. McCain's fellow home state congressperson and veteran, whom Trump did mention, U.S. Rep. Martha McSally seemed to forget the senator's name too.
It's something McCain's daughter, Meghan, wasn't too happy about.
"The View" co-host tweeted Wednesday that McSally's "inability to even mention my father's name when discussing the bill named in his honor is disgraceful (just as it was with Trump) - I had such higher hopes for the next generation of leadership in my home state."
McCain and McSally do have a history of working together to save the A-10 Thunderbolt jet from early retirement by the U.S. Air Force. McCain led the years-long fight to save the "Warthog," a mainstay at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in McSally's Tucson congressional district.
The Air Force now says it will keep the A-10 till 2030. The defense bill signed by President Trump provides $65 million for new wings on aging A-10s.
During his time as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain has been a leading voice for beefing up America's military spending. Here in the Valley, he fought to keep Luke Air Force Base open and helped deliver three squadrons of the new F-35 fighter jet to the base.
McSally chalked up the McCain snubbing headlines to media-created controversy. The U.S. representative, who is running for U.S. Senate in Arizona as a strong supporter of President Trump, said she was frustrated to see the stories about the snubbing after returning from Fort Drum.
She, however, wasn't "totally shocked."
"Everybody wants a controversy related to President Trump and so this was the main issue," she told Team 12's Brahm Resnik. "Very frustrating, I mean Sen. John McCain is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he's worked on this bill and led on these issues, that is a fact. This is important for our troops it shouldn't be a divisive issue, this should be one that we're celebrating together."
McSally said the bill was about the troops and their families, and "that's what the focus should be on," not the ongoing beef between Trump and McCain.
"Those two have their relationship they can certainly work it out," McSally said.
She echoed that stance in tweets Thursday.
"The NDAA bill signing was about our troops and rebuilding our military, but instead, the media decided again to turn it into controversy on what the President did or didn’t say, and unfortunately made that the entire focus," she said. "It's no secret that Senator McCain and the President don't see eye to eye on many things, but in this case, we were all unified to give our heroes what they need to keep us safe."