GINA CHON: RIP John McCain, maverick who took on Trump
'McCain was the odd one out in the Grand Old Party, which has long counted big finance as key donors and allies'
John McCain was a financial maverick for a Republican. The Arizona senator, who died on Saturday after battling brain cancer, was famous for his independent streak. His last major contribution in Congress, before his illness forced him to stay close to home, was to help block his party’s push to repeal Obamacare. McCain refused to toe the line on Wall Street, including on reining in firms from Goldman Sachs to Credit Suisse after the financial crisis. McCain was the odd one out in the Grand Old Party, which has long counted big finance as key donors and allies. For several years until the end of 2014, he was former Democratic Senator Carl Levin’s right-hand man in investigating Wall Street wrongdoing in the wake of the 2008 crash. Levin used his chairmanship of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to target Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse, hedge fund Renaissance Technologies and others. McCain’s involvement added the all-important bipartisan support that lent th...
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