McCain’s Primary Opponent: He’s Gotten Weak and Old, Could Die in Office

Arizona Senate Republican primary candidate Kelli Ward doubled down on her attacks on Sen. John McCain’s (R., Ariz.) age Thursday on Meet The Press Daily, saying he had gotten old and weak and suggesting he was near the end of his life.

Ward, who is trailing McCain in the polls with the primary less than a week away, was blasted by the Washington Post for launching “one of the nastiest political attacks.”

“I’m actually the only Republican that can win in the general election,” she said. “John McCain is falling down on the job. He’s gotten weak. He’s gotten old. I do want to wish him a happy birthday. He’s going to be 80 on Monday, and I want to give him the best birthday present ever, the gift of retirement.”

“So you think he’s too old to serve in the Senate?” host Chuck Todd asked.

“I think anybody who’s been in Washington for almost 40 years has been there too long,” Ward said.

“But you brought up his age. That’s a tough attack,” Todd said.

“Well, I’m a physician,” she said. “I see the physiological changes that happen in normal aging in patients again and again and again over the last 20, 25 years, so I do know what happens to the body and the mind at the end of life.”

“You feel comfortable diagnosing him on air like this?” Todd asked.

“Diagnosing him as an 80-year-old man? Yes, I do,” Ward said.

“I’m a doctor,” she said. “The life expectancy of the American male is not 86. It’s less.”

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