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Cindy McCain rejects idea of running for office: ‘I’ve been there’

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Cindy McCain is shooting down the idea of launching a political bid, saying she prefers to “sit back and watch others do it.”

The widow of former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who died of brain cancer in 2018, responded in a People magazine interview published Wednesday to a question about the potential for her own future political run.

“I’ve been there, I got through that,” she says of life as the spouse of a six-term senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee. “I’ll sit back and watch others do it and give my blessing.”

The 66-year-old author of “Stronger: Courage, Hope & Humor in my Life With John McCain” — who famously crossed party lines to endorse Joe Biden over then-President Trump in last year’s White House race — also declined to confirm a report that she’s poised to be tapped as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations World Food Program.

Her appointment would follow a tradition observed by former Presidents Obama, George W. Bush and Clinton — and later broken by Trump — of nominating at least one person from the opposing party to a Senate-confirmed position.

“I’m deeply grateful to be considered for anything,” McCain told the magazine.

But, she added, “I haven’t given up on the [Republican] party.”

In her memoir, McCain reflects on the challenges of being a “political spouse.”

“It’s gratifying to be one-half of a partnership and have your life fully intertwined with the person you love,” she writes, according to People. “But there’s a yearning to be an independent person in your own right, too.”

Another passage in the book details her experience dealing with media attention: “Part of the role of a political spouse is to laugh and smile at jokes you’ve heard a thousand times before, and to make it clear with your loyal gaze that there is no place else you’d rather be. … I would feel a twinge in my back and want to kickoff my high-heeled shoes and just lie down.”

“But as a political wife,” McCain writes, “you never got to wiggle your toes.”

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