That is a different point. I don't recall if McCain said he was a "hero" or not. Many times I saw him play up his military career. He was not modest John when it came to that.
Trump Reportedly Nixed White House Statement Praising McCain After His Death WaPo reports: Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and other White House aides advocated for an official statement that gave the decorated Vietnam War POW plaudits for his military and Senate service and called him a “hero,” according to current and former White House aides, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. The original statement was drafted before McCain died Saturday, and Sanders and others edited a final version this weekend that was ready for the president, the aides said. But Trump told aides he wanted to post a brief tweet instead, and the statement praising McCain’s life was not released.
Then where is all this hero talk coming from? Partisans trying to score points? Perhaps McCain should have been more proactive in shutting down the overgrowth of the legend. Why was it sacrilegious for Trump to suggest he was not more a hero than anyone else in those circumstances? The songbird tape, imo, does not reveal anything strategic about flight patterns, such that other pilots could get shot down. That is the main thing. Demoralizing? Not sure how. Seems it would be easy for any other POW's to let it in one ear and out the next, figuring he had been tortured. Again, it does open the strong possibility that he was able to get them to ease off on torture, if that's what it took to make the tape. Meaning, the probability goes up that he was treated better, if not specially. We don't know, probably will never know, whether or not he revealed anything that could get other pilots shot down. That would define a hero, depending on how much torture was inflicted. We just cannot know!
Good on Trump. Such a statement would be seen as the meaningless political pablum that it was, and would denigrate the Trump brand of more honest politics and straightforward speech.