Back in Arizona, Meghan McCain rips Rep. Martha McSally's snub of dad Sen. John McCain

Meghan McCain, the daughter of U.S. Sen. John McCain, tore into U.S. Rep. Martha McSally late Wednesday for snubbing her father while supporting legislation named in his honor. 

McCain, a political commentator and co-host of ABC's "The View," returned to Arizona this week following a honeymoon with her husband.

Late Wednesday night, she wrote on Twitter that McSally's "inability to even mention my father's name when discussing the bill named in his honor is disgraceful (just as it was with Trump) — I had such higher hopes for the next generation of leadership in my home state."

McSally, a two-term congresswoman, was in damage-control mode Thursday morning and lashed out against the media for focusing on the snub.

The defense bill signing "was about our troops and rebuilding our military, but instead, the media decided again to turn it into controversy on what the President did or didn't say, and unfortunately made that the entire focus."

She said on Twitter that McCain, as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee "has helped our troops and strengthened our country's national security."

McSally is in a three-way contest to win the GOP nomination for Arizona's open U.S. Senate seat, was one of six congressional members at Fort Drum in upstate New York on Monday with President Donald Trump.

RELATED: Trump doesn't mention McCain at bill signing

There, she witnessed his signing of the national defense authorization act, this year named after Arizona's six-term senator and former prisoner of war.

It is officially called the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2019. Congress fast-tracked passage of the bill, naming it after McCain as a sign of his dedication to the U.S. military and its troops. He said he was "humbled" that his colleagues named the bill after him, and said his service on the Armed Services Committee "has been one of the greatest honors of  my life." 

Trump at the signing thanked a slate of GOP congressional members, but did not mention McCain, who is battling a deadly form of brain cancer. The 81-year-old senator is with his wife, Cindy, at their home near Sedona. He has not returned to Capitol Hill since last December. His daughter regularly visits her parents in Arizona during time off from shooting the TV show "The View" in New York.

The slight is the most recent of many, which included Trump mocking McCain's capture after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War. McCain was held as a prisoner of war for more than five years. 

RELATED: OPINION: Roberts: McSally's snub of McCain is pathetic

McCain is out of favor with the Arizona Republican base in large part because of his ongoing feud with Trump. Throughout her primary campaign, McSally has kept close to Trump, a pivotal figure in Arizona's election.

McSally also did not invoke McCain's name while on a media tour earlier this week promoting the legislation and her invitation by the White House to attend the bill signing. 

One tweet from McSally's account, for example, said this: "I was invited by the @WhiteHouse to witness @POTUS sign the National Defense Authorization Act into law today. I'm working with @realDonaldTrump to rebuild our military and grow our defense assets to ensure we continue to have the strongest military in the world."

McSally's lengthy statement about the bill signing noticeably made no mention of McCain. 

RELATED: Meghan McCain 'scared' for America without her dad

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, the expected Democratic nominee in the U.S. Senate race, told The Arizona Daily Star that she wished the president "would have honored" McCain, since the legislation was named for him by Congress.

“Regardless of what is said in a bill-signing ceremony in New York, in Arizona we know it is the John McCain Act," Sinema said.