Millionaire beer heiress Cindy McCain, second wife and widow of the late Senator John McCain, was passing through the Phoenix airport when she was bothered by the sight of a woman with a small child “of a different ethnicity.” Yeah, so? McCain herself has been in an airport, perhaps the same one, with a child “of a different ethnicity.” No one hassled her in 1991 when she flew in with a baby girl from Bangladesh the McCains later adopted, their youngest child Bridget McCain.

Here’s a scary, boastful, account of the incident she related on radio station KTAR.

McCain said, “I came in from a trip I’d been on and I spotted – it looked odd. It was a woman of a different ethnicity than the child, this little toddler she had, and something didn’t click with me. I tell people, ‘Trust your gut.’ I went over to the police and told them what I thought, and they went over and questioned her. And by God, she was trafficking that kid.”

“No way!” said one of the hosts. (A comment that doesn’t commit to belief one way or the other.)

“And you said a toddler?” said the other host.

“Yes, a toddler. It was a toddler. She was waiting for the guy who bought the child to get off the airplane.”

McCain said she follows the dictum, “If you see something, say something.” And we can all be part of it. “You can make a difference. Everyone can make a difference on this. It’s going on not just in big venues, but it’s in your own neighborhood.”

How inspiring! However, every part of this story after “they went over and questioned her” is false. The Phoenix Police Department confirmed that McCain told them of her failure to click, and that they did question the woman who didn’t make McCain click, and that everything was fine. A welfare check revealed “no evidence of criminal conduct or child endangerment.”

We are told that McCain apologized, but that’s not exactly right.

The AP said, “Cindy McCain has apologized….” People wrote, “Cindy McCain apologizes…” The New York Times referred to the “Cindy McCain apology…” And so on.

What McCain actually [tweeted] was:

McCain says she apologizes – but not for calling the cops on an innocent family. Not for giving a false account. She only apologizes for the possibility that she discouraged people from doing exactly what she did. Which is why she apologizes to Twitter-readers and not THE WOMAN SHE CALLED THE COPS ON.

By the way, there was no “incident” until McCain created one.

She does not address the grave unpleasantness of having your family ties questioned. ‘Is this your child? Why doesn’t your child look like you? Can you prove this is your child?’ Or even more horrible questions: ‘Are you trafficking this child for sex, or selling it for adoption? Did you buy this child for yourself, or are you a middleman? Will this child be put to work at a Trump golf course?”

Such interrogation is scarier in an era in which law enforcement officers are wrenching children from their parents’ arms, incarcerating them, losing track of them, or giving them into the custody of strangers who want to keep them. Often right there in Arizona.

There’s a possible racial profiling angle. “Possible” because the police have, correctly, withheld personal information about the family. One wonders if McCain’s inability to find a click was because the people did not resemble her own previous situation – a white woman with a toddler of a different ethnicity – but rather a white toddler with a woman of a different ethnicity. But maybe not. Some people don’t seem to learn much from personal experience.

There’s the issue of “trusting your gut” and “seeing something.” That’s very subjective. Everyone’s gut is different and tells them different things. If you read Nextdoor, you know that some people’s guts tell them that everything and everyone are very suspicious ALL THE TIME. Maybe McCain’s gut is cattywampus and causing her to see trafficking everywhere, EVEN IN HER OWN NEIGHBORHOOD, because she’s been co-chairing a state council on human trafficking.

Another big issue is McCain’s fabulations about this incident. “And by God, she was trafficking that kid.” “She was waiting for the guy who bought the child to get off the airplane.” Not true, not true, not true. The woman was not trafficking the child. She was not awaiting a child-buyer.

Did McCain knowingly lie? Or did she believe it herself?

If she knew she was lying (but didn’t think anyone would check), she should be driven out of public life. If she believed it herself, what the HELL? Has she jumped the tracks entirely?

If someone’s gut suggests there’s something seriously wrong with McCain’s thinking, is it their duty to call for a welfare check?

 

Thanks to tipster Barry H.