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CNN EXCLUSIVE McCain, Graham to appear at town hall
McCain, Graham to appear at CNN town hall
Story highlights
- Lindsey Graham and John McCain are two US senators who've feuded with the President
- They're appearing at a town hall for CNN on Wednesday night
Washington (CNN)Just
five weeks into Donald Trump's presidency, Republican Sens. John McCain
and Lindsey Graham have already proven to be major headaches for the
new President.
While many of
their Republican colleagues in Congress have worked to make inroads with
the new administration, hoping to capitalize on GOP control over two
branches of government, the two senators have repeatedly broken with the
White House. McCain has accused Trump of running an "administration in disarray." Graham called his budget proposal "dead on arrival" on Capitol Hill.
Now,
the two are set to make their case to a national audience in a 9 p.m.
ET Wednesday town hall hosted by CNN and moderated by chief political
correspondent Dana Bash.
The town hall comes just one day after Trump delivered his first primetime speech to a joint session of Congress.
And
two issues -- immigration and defense spending -- could provide Graham,
a South Carolina Republican, and McCain, an Arizona Republican, new
fodder.
Graham
could have reason to praise Trump. He has long called for comprehensive
immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented
immigrants -- particularly "Dreamers" who were brought into the country
illegally as children.
Trump's call Tuesday night for both sides to compromise on immigration could create a political avenue for such reforms.
McCain,
however, has been displeased by Trump's calls for increases in defense
spending that don't match the Arizona Republican senator's targets.
He
continued to express concerns about the President's defense budget
proposal Tuesday, saying there's "not nearly enough" money for programs.
"And it simply won't take care of
the issues and challenges that we have," McCain said. "For example,
half the F-18 (Super Hornets) are now grounded for lack of parts and we
have increased operations in both Syria and Afghanistan. There's a need
for $640 billion, just as we laid out in our white paper."
McCain
and Graham are both unsuccessful former presidential candidates. McCain
ran in 2000 and was the GOP nominee in 2008, while Graham was a member
of the crowded Republican primary field in 2016 from which Trump
emerged. The two are among the Senate's foremost national security
hawks, and are typically in lockstep on foreign policy issues -- urging a
larger US role in combating terror threats such as ISIS in Iraq and
Syria and a tougher approach to Russia.
During
the campaign, Trump feuded with both McCain, whose war-hero status he
questioned, and Graham, whose personal cell phone number he read aloud
while on national television.
And both have frequently criticized Trump during his five weeks in office.
In
Munich on February, McCain fretted about "the growing inability, and
even unwillingness, to separate truth from lies" -- a clear shot at
Trump, who has espoused falsehoods about crowd size, voter fraud and
more.
Graham, meanwhile, declared
Trump's budget "dead on arrival" Tuesday, pointing to its cuts to the
State Department and complaining that Trump didn't call for more
significant increases in defense spending.
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