At an Americas Conference panel discussion today, McCain adviser Richard Fontaine argued that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) affair 50 years ago with former Brazilian beauty queen Maria Gracinda Teixeira de Jesus illustrated “the long experience he has had in the region — in the most positive terms”:
”Talking a little about his personal experience, he was famously born in Panama and has traveled all over the hemisphere for many years.” Fontaine said. “In fact, I saw, I guess it was last week, that his old girlfriend in Brazil has been found from his early days when he was in the Navy and was interviewed. She’s a somewhat older woman now than she was then, but it sorta speaks to the long experience he has had in the region — in the most positive terms.”
Asked afterwards if he was suggesting that the fling “counted as Latin America foreign policy experience,” Fontaine responded, “‘The only thing I was trying to convey was that his experience goes back a long way.” (HT: Ben Smith)
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