A conservative veterans’ group has slammed Donald Trump for his controversial remarks about Arizona senator John McCain’s capture during the Vietnam War, and for his effort to clarify those remarks in a follow-up statement.
“A man who received four student deferments to avoid service in the Vietnam War has absolutely no credibility to attack someone like John McCain who volunteered to serve his country and suffered five-and-a-half years of torture as a result,” Concerned Veterans for America CEO Pete Hegseth said in a statement on Saturday.
Hegseth was responding to Trump’s mockery of McCain earlier Saturday. “He was a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. “I like people who weren’t captured.”
Trump and McCain have been trading jabs since the longtime senator applied the moniker “crazies” to supporters of the business magnate, who has built his nascent presidential campaign on populist immigration and economic stances.
In a follow-up statement Saturday afternoon, Trump said that McCain’s comments were “extremely disrespectful” to his supporters. He also tried to appeal to the veteran community by criticizing McCain and the Department of Veterans Affairs for failing to provide them adequate services. “I am not a fan of John McCain because he has done so little for our veterans and he should know better than anyone else what the veterans need, especially in regards to the VA,” he said in the statement.
The statement did add that Trump has “great respect for all those who served in our military including those that weren’t captured and are also heroes.”
#related#Hegseth was not convinced, and said that Trump’s effort to quell the controversy had only worsened the original gaffe by demonstrating his ignorance of the VA crisis.
“Senator McCain has been a leader in fighting to give veterans more health care choices and to hold the VA accountable for its failures,” Hegseth said. “Finally, this incident should clarify for veterans which leaders really understand the issues they face and the sacrifices they made as part of their military service. Unfortunately, it appears that Donald Trump is not one of them.”
— Joel Gehrke is a political reporter at National Review.