Cindy McCain, widow of the late Republican Senator to Arizona, John McCain, announced her endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden for the presidency on Tuesday, Sept. 22. 

McCain issued her endorsement via Twitter, a month after she was featured in the Democratic National Convention where she narrated a video showcasing the close friendship that her late husband and Biden had.  

“My husband John lived by a code: country first. We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost,” McCain said. “There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is @JoeBiden.”

The endorsement followed the release of The Atlantic article, which details President Donald Trump’s allegedly disparaging remarks regarding members of the armed forces, calling those who had died in the line of duty “losers” and “suckers.” Trump denies the alleged claims outlined in editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg’s report. 

In an interview with NBC’s “The Today Show,” McCain explained that she decided to publicly endorse Biden after reading The Atlantic report about Trump’s alleged remarks. 

“It’s a combination of things, but I do believe that our men and women that served in the military are not losers and certainly the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice are not losers,” McCain said. 

The patriarch of the McCain family served in the Vietnam War and spent a total of five-and-a-half years in Northern Vietnam as a Prisoner of War. Following in their father’s footsteps, three of the McCain children also served in the armed forces. Biden’s late son, Beau Biden, also served in the armed services as an officer in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

“[Biden] will be a commander-in-chief that the finest fighting force in the history of the world can depend on, because he knows what it is like to send a child off to fight,” McCain said.

McCain, as a mother, humanitarian and wife of a former Republican Presidential nominee and Senator, seeks to reach out to suburban women like herself with her endorsement of Biden. This marks the first time that McCain has jumped the party line to vote for a Democrat since she was eighteen.

“I think a lot of people like me and others, they’re kind of suburban women, are kind of misled a little bit and kind of sad about the direction the Republican Party is going,” McCain said on “CBS This Morning.” “I will always be a Republican… But right now, I believe that the person in the race that’s the best one that represents me is Joe Biden.”

As of Sept. 28, it was announced that McCain would be joining the board of Biden’s presidential transition team. McCain is the second Republican, in addition to former Obama Administration Veteran Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald, in advising Biden on his possible upcoming presidency.