Cindy McCain Joins Longtime Friend Joe Biden's Transition Team as an Adviser

Andreas Gebert/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images From left: former Vice President Joe Biden and Cindy McCain in 2018

Cindy McCain is taking her recent endorsement of longtime friend Joe Biden one step further, as the Biden campaign announced this week she'll be joining the candidate's transition team as an adviser.

“This transition is like no other, preparing amid the backdrop of a global health crisis and struggling economy,″ former Sen. Ted Kaufman, the transition co-chair, said in a statement on Monday, ″which makes Mrs. McCain’s experience as a business woman, philanthropist and longtime advocate for issues impacting women and children all the more valuable."

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news Monday.

The widow of late Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Cindy last week endorsed Biden, 77, reflecting in part on his enduring friendship with her late husband and the McCain family.

″Joe and I don't always agree on the issues, and I know he and John certainly had some passionate arguments, but he is a good and honest man,″ Cindy, 66, tweeted. ″He will lead us with dignity."

She is among a growing minority of GOP voices who have spoken out in favor of Biden ahead of the Nov. 3 election and, as the campaign highlighted, is the second Republican to join as a Biden transition adviser in preparation for his possible victory.

RELATED: Meghan McCain Welcomes Baby Girl with Husband Ben Domenech: 'Happy and Healthy'

William Thomas Cain/Getty Sen. John McCain (left) and former Vice President Joe Biden together in October 2017

Lou Rocco/Getty Images From left: former Vice President Joe Biden and Meghan McCain

Fellow Republican Bob McDonald, the former chief executive of Procter & Gamble, is also advising Biden's transition prep, which features 16 advisory board members. McDonald served in the Obama administration as the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Other members of Biden's transition team include former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg as well as some names initially included on Biden's shortlist for running mates, such as New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice.

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana are also among the others set to advise Biden on his potential transition, according to the Journal.

Cindy's support for Biden comes after President Donald Trump, 74, has repeatedly attacked her late husband, a Trump rival, even after his death in 2018 — including complaining about flags being lowered to half-mast after he died from brain cancer, according to a report by The Atlantic, which the White House disputed.

(Trump also denied calling Sen. McCain a ″loser," despite retweeting the insult in 2015.)

RELATED: Cindy and Meghan McCain Pay Tribute to John McCain on What Would've Been His 84th Birthday

The same Atlantic report included anonymous sources describing Trump disparaging service members in general, referring to those killed in action as ″losers″ and ″suckers.″

″This never stops being incredibly painful, triggering, and it rips off new layers of grief that wreak havoc on my life,″ Meghan McCain, the McCains' 35-year-old daughter and a co-host on The View, said at the time.

Roughly three weeks later, Biden received Cindy's official endorsement.

″My husband John lived by a code: country first. We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost," she wrote last week. ″There's only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is [Biden]."

Trump responded on Twitter with characteristic venom: "I hardly know Cindy McCain other than having put her on a Committee at her husband’s request. Joe Biden was John McCain’s lapdog. So many BAD decisions on Endless Wars & the V.A., which I brought from a horror show to HIGH APPROVAL. Never a fan of John. Cindy can have Sleepy Joe!"