John McCain’s Sons-Truth! But the Obama quote is Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A story about John McCain visiting the New Hampshire home of Erin Flanagan, a mother whose son was killed in action in Iraq. McCain brought his own youngest son who is a Marine and was about to leave for service in Iraq. The eRumor says that McCain has two other sons, one of whom was a Navy pilot and the other is a student at the U.S. Naval Academy. It closes with a supposed quote from Barack Obama in which he says, “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
The Truth:
According to the New York Times, this story about John McCain’s sons and his visit with Erin Flanagan is true.
The alleged quote from Barack Obama at the end of the email saying that he would “stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction” is Fiction! It is a corruption of a quote about immigrants from his book. CLICK HERE for more about the quote.
The story about McCain, written by Jodi Kantor, was in the New York Times on April 6, 2008.
She describes how McCain visited with Erin Flanagan and brought his son James with him. James enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at the age of 17 and at the time of the Flanagan visit in July, 2007, had already served in Iraq and was scheduled to return with the rank of Lance Corporal.
The article says that McCain has maintained a code of silence about his son “to protect him from becoming a prize target and avoid exploiting his service for political gain, according to friends.” At the few campaign events where James McCain had attended, he was not introduced.
Kantor said that the McCain campaign had declined an interview for her article and that the campaign had asked that it not be published.
The information about McCain’s other two sons is also true. One of them was a pilot in the Navy and the other was a student at the U.S. Naval Academy at the time the article was published.
CLICK HERE for a link to Kantor’s article.
Updated 9/24/08
