McCain says HBO's 'Game Change' disrespectful to Sarah Palin

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said HBO's upcoming movie "Game Change" is disrespectful to his former running mate Sarah Palin and that the book that the movie script is based on is "unfair and untrue."

"I won't watch it. I know it's based on a book that's totally unfair and untrue, especially to Sarah Palin. I want to repeat if I could my admiration and appreciation for Sarah Palin, she energized our party ... she energized more people than I did. She's a good and decent person and this continuing maligning of her by the liberal left is reprehensible to me," McCain said during an appearance on the "Kilmeade and Friends" radio show.

The Arizona lawmaker went on to suggest that liberals were pouring salt in the wound of the 2008 election.

"You've gotten your revenge, you won. I say that to the liberal left. You won. Can't you at least give her some respect, a person who ran hard, who did what she believes in, who energized our Republican base, instead of trying to continue to malign her, a good and decent family person and someone who I will always appreciate?"

McCain also accused Time magazine political analyst Mark Halperin — who co-wrote the book — of liberal bias.

"You know something, this guy — he might as well have been a paid member of the Obama election campaign if you look at his coverage ... he still is, he still is, he still is, I'm not making it up," McCain said.

Halperin defended the movie — which he and co-author John Heilemann consulted on — during an interview Monday on MSNBC.

"Rather than being a divisive thing, it's going to be something that is more uniting than most things like this about Sarah Palin because it show the entire story truthfully, the times when she struggled and the times when she excelled," Halperin said.

Palin herself used the film to raise funds in an email to supporters Friday.

“The screenwriter of Game Change, Danny Strong, lapsed into a tired routine of manipulating facts and omitting key parts of Governor Palin’s story in order to push a biased agenda and drive ratings,” Palin’s political action committee wrote in an email to supporters. “We have warned viewers of Game Change’s distortions — based upon the description and reports from people who have viewed the film, HBO must add a disclaimer that this movie is fiction.“

HBO has defended the film, arguing to reporters that the movie is a “balanced portrayal” of the campaign, and noting that Palin has admitted to not yet having seen the film.

“HBO has a long track record of producing fact-based dramas, going to great lengths to get the story right,” HBO executive Quentin Schaffer wrote in a letter obtained by Variety.

Shaffer went on to say that much of the “noise about the film” has come from “several Palin aides trying to discredit it even though they haven’t yet seen it.”

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