'We need a president who'll put service before self': Cindy McCain stars in new Biden campaign ad

Cindy McCain has recorded a campaign video for Joe Biden to air in Arizona, as he seeks to turn the state blue for the first time since 1996

Cindy McCain has recorded a video advert for Joe Biden, reminiscing fondly about her late husband John McCain’s friendship with him, and saying America “needs a president who will put country before self”.

With Arizona currently looking set to turn blue for the first time since 1996 - and for only the second time since 1952 - the Biden campaign is pouring resources into the state, where John McCain, who died in August 2018, remains wildly popular. 

"My husband knew Joe Biden a long time,” she said, telling how Biden, formerly a senator for Delaware, and McCain, senator for Arizona, would travel the world together visiting troops.

“They developed the kind of friendship you don’t see too often,” she said. 

“In the Senate, they disagreed about almost everything. They’d fight like hell on the floor, and then they would go and eat lunch together - because they always put their friendship, and their country, first.”

The advert will air in McCain’s home state of Arizona, which narrowly voted for Donald Trump in 2016, with 49.5 per cent of support versus 45.4 per cent for Hillary Clinton.

Arizona has voted Republican in every election since 1952, with the exception of 1996, when Bill Clinton won.

Yet the state is now very much up for grabs.

Biden is currently leading in the polls in Arizona, with 48.6 per cent of voters backing him and 44.8 per cent continuing to support Trump.

McCain said that America needs a president, like Biden, who will act in the best interests of the country.

Joe Biden and John McCain, pictured in the new campaign ad (Joe Biden campaign)

Biden and McCain travelled the world together, Cindy McCain says (Joe Biden campaign)

“Now more than ever we need a president who will put service before self,” she said. "A president who will lead with courage and compassion, not ego.

“A president who will respect the sacrifices made by our service members and their families.”

She said Biden would be “a president who will bring out the best of us, not the worst," and emphasised his three decades in the Senate, where he learnt about“working across the aisle to get things done”.

“Joe Biden will always fight for the American people - just like John did,” she concluded.

The McCain family has despised Trump ever since an extraordinary war of words broke out between Trump, then a presidential candidate, and McCain, a Vietnam veteran and war hero.

McCain in 2015 accused Trump of "firing up the crazies" — a reference to what McCain said was "a very extreme element within our Republican Party."

Trump hit back with a venom which many thought would sink his chances among Republicans.

"He was a war hero because he was captured," he said.

"I like people who weren't captured. He lost and let us down. I've never liked him as much after that."

The New York billionaire, who avoided the Vietnam draft due to bone spurs, concluded: "I don't like losers."