Meghan McCain, the daughter of late Arizona senator, pulled no punches on Twitter in defending her father's name after President Donald Trump criticised his role in the infamous Steele dossier.
"No one will ever love you the way they loved my father," Meghan, who co-hosts TV shot The View, wrote on Saturday.
"I wish I had been given more Saturday's (sic) with him. Maybe spend yours with your family instead of [going] on Twitter obsessing over mine?"
Her comments came in response to Trump's rant about John McCain. "Spreading the fake and totally discredited dossier 'is unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain', POTUS said, citing former Independent Counsel Ken Starr, who investigated the Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal.
"He had far worse 'stains' than this," Trump added, "including thumbs down on repeal and replace after years of campaigning to repeal and replace!"
He was referring to Republican efforts to override the Affordable Care Act of 2010, which launched the US federal health programme commonly known as Obamacare. "Repeal and replace" has been a Republican slogan since the law was adopted and was one of Trump's key promises during the 2016 presidential campaign.
GOP lawmakers sought to roll back Obamacare after they gained control over the presidency and two chambers of Congress in 2016, but McCain, in September 2017, voted down the Graham-Cassidy bill, which was the Republican's last-ditch effort.
The salacious Steele dossier refers to a document compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, which triggered rumours of Trump-Russia collusion and inspired the Mueller investigation.
Steele claimed, in particular, that Donald Trump had performed potentially treasonous Russia-related financial activity and that Russian agents were responsible for the DNC email hacks. These allegations still remain unverified after well over two years of investigations by the FBI, Congress and the US media.
Fusion GPS, the opposition research company that contracted the dossier, was reported to have been funded by the Democratic National Committee and George Soros.
John McCain wrote in his 2018 book, The Restless Wave, that he takes pride in passing the Dossier to then-FBI director James Comey. A recent Fox News report says that McCain and his associate, David Kramer, played a key role in spreading the document, which was repeatedly slammed by Donald Trump.
Opinions on Meghan McCain's spat with Donald Trump have been split on social media. While plenty of commenters took her side and described her father as a "hero", others believe that despite his much-touted military service, his political record was far from impeccable.