By Brent Ruffner
Mail | X: @AzNewsmedia

President Joe Biden paid tribute to the late Arizona Sen. John McCain Thursday while campaigning for a second term during a Tempe speech.

The president announced “new federal funds” will be being directed to build the McCain Library at Arizona State University, the Associated Press reported.

“The money comes from a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed in the early months of Biden’s presidency, and the project is in partnership with the with the McCain Institute and Arizona State University,” the AP story said.

McCain’s wife, Cindy, introduced the president and said Biden and his wife first introduced Cindy to McCain while at a meeting in Hawaii.

Biden — who said he was friends with McCain for some 40 years — said he thought of his late friend during a recent trip to Vietnam. McCain, who spent nearly six years in a prisoner of war camp during the Vietnam War, put his country first and had the vision to put democracy first, Biden said.
The president said he worked well with the late senator — a Republican — on various issues where the two men came together.

“...Democracy is still at risk,” the president said during a Tempe speech broadcast on the PBS website.

Biden claimed some are “openly promoting” attacks on democracy. At one point, Biden pointed to a specific instance where former President Donald Trump is said to have called American servicemen who died for their country as “suckers and losers,” Biden said.

“It’s not only wrong, it’s un-American,” Biden said.

Biden encouraged students in attendance to vote and said McCain would have believed “we could meet” this moment of democracy being threatened.

“...The soul of America depends on the souls of all Americans,” Biden said.

Biden spoke in Maricopa County — where there were allegations the last U.S. presidential election was stolen. Biden won the state by slightly more than 10,000 votes.

Brent Ruffner
Lead News Reporter | Daily Independent

BRuffner@iniusa.org

Journalism has fascinated Brent Ruffner since junior high school.

Since 2001, his stories have been published in newspapers from the Albuquerque to the Arizona and he has always had a knack for making sure his facts are right and his words are to the point. 

Growing up, Brent watched as sports reporters covered his beloved Phoenix Suns, a team he followed since Charles Barkley first arrived in Phoenix via trade in 1992. Sports reporting was a dream back then.

But after gaining some writing experience, Brent found a love for news instead of covering different types of sports. In 2008, he moved to New Mexico and covered crime, schools and city beats all while holding elected officials accountable. 

He covered stories that ranged from a DEA drug bust gone bad to an award-winning story on school lunches. 

In Arizona, Brent was a freelance writer who covered everything from the importance of citrus in the state to Esteban owning a store in downtown Prescott. 

Brent is a 2007 graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.