Ames, IA – Trump Slams War Veteran John McCain: ‘I Like People Who Weren’t Captured’

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    Republican presidential candidate, real estate mogul Donald Trump, speaks at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, Saturday, July 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)Ames, IA – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized Sen. John McCain’s military record at a conservative forum Saturday, saying the party’s 2008 nominee and former prisoner of war was a “war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

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    The comment drew some boos from some in the audience — and quick condemnation from rivals who have been waiting for such an opening to rein in the outspoken reality television personality. Trump has surged in polls recently, frustrating many in his party concerned that he has hijacked the 2016 Republican primary and damaged the GOP brand.

    Trump and McCain traded barbs earlier this week. McCain said Trump’s controversial comments about immigrants had “fired up the crazies” at a rally in Phoenix. Trump retorted that the Arizona Republican was “a dummy” who graduated at the bottom of his class at the U.S. Naval Academy.

    McCain’s war record was a cornerstone of his 2008 bid for president. A Navy pilot during the Vietnam War, he was captured after his plane was shot down. He was held for more than five years as a prisoner of war.

    On Saturday, speaking at a conference of religious conservatives, Trump was pressed on his description of McCain as “a dummy.” The moderator, Republican pollster Frank Luntz, described McCain as “a war hero.”

    “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. “He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

    During a news conference after his appearance at the Family Leader Summit, Trump did not apologize but sought to clarify his remarks.

    “If a person is captured, they’re a hero as far as I’m concerned. … But you have to do other things also,” Trump said. “I don’t like the job John McCain is doing in the Senate because he is not taking care of our veterans.”

    A spokesman for McCain, Brian Rogers, had no comment when asked about Trump’s remarks.

    Trump said he avoided service in the Vietnam War through student and medical deferments. He said he got a medical deferment for a bone spur in a foot, but could not remember which foot. He added that he did not serve because he “was not a big fan of the Vietnam War. I wasn’t a protester, but the Vietnam War was a disaster for our country.”

    The comments about McCain drew rapid criticism from other 2016 hopefuls. Some have been at the receiving end of Trump insults themselves.

    South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who recently retired from the Air Force, said early state voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina would dispense with Trump soon enough.

    “Here’s what I think they’re going to say: ‘Donald Trump, you’re fired,'” Graham said, borrowing a line from Trump’s reality television show.

    Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another veteran, said he was “highly offended by what Donald Trump said about John McCain and his years of sacrifice in a dirty, dingy terrible prison in North Vietnam.” He added: “Donald Trump owes every American veteran, and in particular John McCain, an apology.”

    On Thursday, Trump tweeted that Perry should be “forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to enter the GOP debate.”

    After Trump’s remarks, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tweeted: “Enough with the slanderous attacks. @SenJohnMcCain and all our veterans — particularly POWs have earned our respect and admiration.” In the past, Trump has criticized Bush on education and border issues and cracked that “this guy can’t negotiate his way out of a paper bag.”

    Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker also condemned the remarks. “You may agree or disagree with some of his politics,” Walker said, “but John McCain is an American hero, and I will defend him and any other veteran that’s been a prisoner of war.”

    Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called McCain an American war hero, but sidestepped when asked whether he would condemn the remarks.

    “I recognize that folks in the press love to see Republican on Republican violence,” Cruz said. “You want me to say something bad about Donald Trump or bad about John McCain or bad about anyone else and I’m not going to do it.”

    Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee called McCain a “great American hero,” but he declined to weigh in on Trump’s comments, saying Trump would have to decide whether he wanted to “walk back” his statements.

    The front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, not only harshly criticized Trump but accused the GOP field of being slow to repudiate his other controversial rhetoric.

    “There’s nothing funny about the hate he is spewing at immigrants and their families, and now the insults he’s directed at a genuine war hero, Sen. John McCain,” Clinton said at a fundraiser in North Little Rock, Arkansas, for the state Democratic Party. “It’s shameful and so is the fact that it took so long for most of his fellow Republican candidates to start standing up to him.”


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    26 Comments
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    Oyvey
    Oyvey
    8 years ago

    McCain was not considered a war hero simply because he was captured. He was considered a war hero because of the way he conducted himself while in prison. He had the option of being freed early, but turned it down as he didn’t want to leave his fellow prisoners, etc. etc.

    8 years ago

    What a disgusting, low remark from a disgusting lowlife. And THIS is the man so many frum Yidden who comment here are supporting? “Clown” is too good a word for him. No wonder most Republicans say they’d never vote for him (his 18 percent support in early polls of the crowded GOP field are extremely misleading) and in head to head matchups with Hillary he does worse than any other Republican.
    It shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, that the same people who compare Obama to Hitler would get excited about a blowhard who blurts out whatever drivel pops into his empty head. And please don’t point out all his business “successes” — he’s made more bad deals than good and has been kept afloat only because the big banks to whom he owed billions could not afford to let him sink.

    dspiegel
    dspiegel
    8 years ago

    Hillary said: “… “It’s shameful and so is the fact that it took so long for most of his fellow Republican candidates to start standing up to him.” …”

    OK, Hillary, but, at least 4 people didn’t die in Benghazi as a result of his remarks. When will your party stand up to you? … That has taken infinitely longer.

    hashomer
    hashomer
    8 years ago

    Trump’s millionaire father got him a draft deferment so he could hide out during the Vietnam war. McCain ‘s father and grandfathers were heroic fighting admirals in the US Navy. John McCain was a Naval fighter pilot who easily could have gotten a desk job, or a deferment, like Chump. He served honorably and was horribly tortured while a POW. Has served in the military and Senate. Chump has never been elected dog catcher. One more dumb statement and he’ll be thrown out as a GOP candidate. Feh

    PaulinSaudi
    PaulinSaudi
    8 years ago

    More than being insensitive, it is a stupid remark. What politically aware American does not know of John McCain’s story? What the heck else is this man ignorant of?

    8 years ago

    If you love America and want to see this country survive then you must support and vote Trump. Don’t even think of lending your support to any other candidate.
    It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, -that we take increased devotion to that cause for which our current president as well as the Democratic Party in general have not given any measure of devotion- that we here highly resolve that these past seven years of Obama’s presidency have been in vain, -that this nation under Trump shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

    8 years ago

    Trump and Bibi Netanyahu have this in common – both were draft dodgers who evaded serving in Vietnam. Bibi ran off to Israel to serve in the IDF special forces during the `67 “pre-emptive defensive” war, while PATRIOTIC americans were dying protecting the rubber plantations of the Firestone Tire corporation from having its labor unionized by the Vietnamese.

    InsideOne
    InsideOne
    8 years ago

    Trump deserves the GOP and the GOP deserves Trump. Ignorant racist entitled boors, the lot of them. Democrats are very very very far from perfect , but how anyone with an ounce of sechel or decency can associate themselves with today’s Republican party is beyond me.

    8 years ago

    Many of us go to sleep every night with a special tefilah to the Ebeshter to make this idiot the Republican candidate for President. If, By’h, we are so fortunate, not only will Hillary be elected President by the biggest landslide since the GOP nominated Barry Goldwater, but having him at the top of the ticket will assure a Democratic Senate majority and a much smaller Republican majority in the House. Say a kapital Tehillim that Trump continues to have much hatzlacha in the primaries.