WASHINGTON, D.C. — A veterans group will hand out T-shirts that pay tribute to the late Sen. John McCain during President Donald Trump's Fourth of July event Thursday.
The shirts read: "USS John S. McCain, Big Bad John" to honor the McCain family's service to America and the U.S. Navy ship that bears his name.
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Vote-Vets, a progressive group founded by war veterans, is behind the shirts. The shirts were printed by the Chicago-based company Rags of Honor, which employs homeless veterans.
"They came up with the idea to honor a late American hero, John McCain, by printing this shirt and at the same time working with veterans, working with volunteers to pass them out on the mall for the Fourth of July while Trump is politicizing this event into something for his own personal gain," Kyle Shivers, the project manager, told WRC. "For him, it was a personal thing with John McCain, so to come back and say, 'Hey look, John McCain is going to maybe still haunt you a little bit from the grave,' and 'Look, here's a whole family of American heroes that served our country and you want to put them in a corner?' We're not going stand by and let that happen."
TRR Group, a political consulting firm that works with Democratic candidates, will help distribute the shirts on the National Mall during the event.
"You know, he wants the big guns and the big tanks and flyovers. And all of that is great, but if it's for a personal reason and not necessarily a way to honor the veterans, it's a little offensive, I think," said Shivers.