WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Cindy McCain is going to bat for Joe Biden, lending her voice to a video set to air during Tuesday night’s Democratic National Convention programming focused on Biden’s close friendship with her late husband, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
She’s just the latest Republican to join in the convention, after a number of notable GOP former elected officials — including former Ohio Gov. John Kasich — endorsed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on Monday night. It’s a continuation of a major theme that Democrats have pushed through the first night of the convention — an effort to broaden the party’s appeal to occasional Republicans and disaffected Trump voters.
In an advance clip from the video shared with The Associated Press, Cindy McCain talks about how Biden, then a Delaware senator, met her husband when John McCain was assigned to be a military aide for him on a trip overseas. The two became friends, and the families would gather for picnics in the Bidens’ backyard.
“They would just sit and joke. It was like a comedy show, sometimes, to watch the two of them,” she says in the clip.
Cindy McCain is not expected to offer an explicit endorsement, but her involvement in the video is her biggest public show of support yet for Biden’s candidacy. McCain was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee against Democrat Barack Obama, who won the election with Biden as his vice presidential running mate.
FILE – In this Oct. 16, 2017, file photo Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., receives the Liberty Medal from Chair of the National Constitution Center’s Board of Trustees, former Vice President Joe Biden, in Philadelphia. Cindy McCain is going to bat for Biden, lending her voice to a video set to air on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020 during the Democratic National Convention programming focused on Biden’s close friendship with her late husband, Sen. John McCain. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) 
Former Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to supporters at a debate watch party as he campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, in Columbia, S.C., Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) 
FILE – In this Dec. 9, 2019, file photo, Michelle Obama listens to female students at the Can Giuoc high school in Long An province, Vietnam. Higher Ground–a production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obam–and Spotify announced Thursday, July 16, 2020, that the former first lady will host “The Michelle Obama Podcast” on the streaming service. The podcast will debut exclusively on Spotify on July 29 (AP Photo/Hau Dinh, File) 
In this image from video, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden leads a conversation on racial justice with Art Acevedo, Jamira Burley, Gwen Carr, Derrick Johnson and Lori Lightfoot during the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Aug. 17, 2020. (Democratic National Convention via AP) 
President Donald Trump speaks at an event at the Wittman Regional Airport Monday, Aug. 17, 2020, in Oshkosh, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer) 
In this image from video, Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., speaks from Charleston, S.C., during the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Aug. 17, 2020. (Democratic National Convention via AP) 
In this Nov. 3, 2019, file photo, former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, in Plains, Ga. Former President Carter called Wednesday, June 3, 2020, for Americans in positions of power and influence to fight racial injustice, saying “silence can be as deadly as violence.” (AP Photo/John Amis, File) 
FILE – In this Jan. 13, 2020, file photo Cindy McCain, wife of former Arizona Sen. John McCain, waves to the crowd after being acknowledged by Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey during his State of the State address on the opening day of the legislative session at the Capitol in Phoenix. Cindy McCain is going to bat for Joe Biden, lending her voice to a video set to air on Tuesday, Aug. 18, during the Democratic National Convention programming focused on Biden’s close friendship with her late husband, Sen. John McCain. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
Both Cindy McCain and her daughter Meghan have been outspoken critics of President Donald Trump, and the family is longtime friends with the Bidens. Trump targeted John McCain personally in 2015, saying the former prisoner of war wasn’t a hero “because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain later angered Trump with his dramatic thumbs-down vote against repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law.
When McCain died on a Saturday in 2018, the Trump administration lowered the American flag over the White House to half-staff but then raised it by Monday. After public outcry, the White House flags were again lowered. Trump wasn’t invite to McCain’s funeral.
Biden consoled Meghan McCain on an appearance on “The View” after her father was diagnosed with the cancer that eventually took his life. She has said Biden often reaches out to her to offer support, after losing his own son Beau to the same cancer in 2015.
But while Meghan suggested in April she’d be voting for Biden, Cindy has pointedly stayed out of the presidential race. In April of last year, amid rumors that the McCains would wade into the election in support of Biden, Cindy McCain tweeted that Biden is “a wonderful man and a dear friend of the McCain family.”
“However,” she added at the time, “I have no intention of getting involved in presidential politics.”
The video on Biden’s friendship with McCain is one of a series of short documentaries created by Oscar Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim, who worked on “An Inconvenient Truth,” the 2006 documentary on climate change that featured former Vice President Al Gore. On Monday night, Guggenheim’s short film focused on Biden’s relationship with the Amtrak conductor and workers on the trains he took from Delaware to Washington as senator aired during the convention.