U.S. Senate candidate Kelli Ward of Arizona apologized Tuesday, for suggesting the late Sen. John McCain tried to derail her candidacy by announcing the end of his cancer treatment.
One of Dr. Ward’s staffers, Jonathan Williams, wrote a Facebook post Saturday suggesting McCain may have timed the announcement to coincide with Tuesday’s primary race, to hurt Ward’s chances in the election. Ward didn’t refute the assertion and kept the theory going, according to The Washington Post. (RELATED: Will Jeff Flake Make A 2020 Run At The White House?: ‘Don’t Waste Our Time’)
“I think they wanted to have a particular narrative that they hope is negative to me,” Ward replied. She has since deleted the post, according to Fox News.
She also posted a tweet likening political correctness to “cancer,” two days after McCain had passed away.
Political correctness is like a cancer!
— Dr. Kelli Ward (@kelliwardaz) August 27, 2018
The Republican is now changing her tune and has become publicly apologetic about the comments.
“I do understand how many could have misconstrued my comments as insensitive, and for this I apologize,” Ward told reporters at her campaign headquarters during a press conference Monday.
“The media quickly ran with a false narrative that I was being insensitive to Sen. McCain at a time when he found himself in dire straits,” Ward continued. “To be clear, my comments were in no way directed at Sen. McCain or at his family or his team.”
Ward will face off against GOP Rep. Martha McSally of Arizona and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Tuesday’s primary race, to replace outgoing Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake.
“I’m not a robot. I’m not an automaton. I’m not somebody who’s programmed with talking points,” Ward said at the press conference. “I don’t mean to offend people, I just mean to speak directly to people, and I think that’s why people want me in this race.”
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