Mr McCain told MSNBC he has fielded a “flood of calls” from military veterans about Mr Trump’s remarks and “they are not happy”.
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The Arizona Senator’s comments came after Trump suggested that McCain is only seen as a war hero because he was captured during the Vietnam War. Those are the people that I think he owes an apology to. Trump said, “I like people who weren’t captured“.
But Towery predicted Trump will have to explain his remarks about McCain at some point. “And I believe perhaps he is a war hero, but right now, he said some very bad things about a lot of people”.
Trump said, “He’s not a war hero”.
McCain was shot down in 1967 during the Vietnam War and was held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi for five years, during which time he was repeatedly beaten and tortured. Well the great honor of my life was to serve in the company of heroes.
Many politicians rallied to McCain’s defense, but the defeated former presidential candidate downplayed the attack on his own record, while defending fellow veterans.
Trump responded to that criticism in Monday’s op-ed as well, saying that many of his competitors “had no business running for president” and that he didn’t “need to be lectured by any of them.” Many polls show Trump at or near the top of the 2016 Republican presidential race.
He later softened his comments however, telling a subsequent news conference that “if a person is captured, they are a hero as far as I’m concerned”.
Read: Donald Trump in a War of Words with Escaped Mexican Drug Lord El Chapo: “You Can’t Be Intimidated”.
Asked if he was raging that someone who had avoided that draft was knocking him, McCain said he preferred to move past the issue. “I do also respect greatly those who aren’t captured”. “I don’t like the job that John McCain is doing in the Senate because he’s not taking care of our veterans….” Following Walker and Trump are retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson with 8 percent; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Texas Sen. He said his views are not those of a Naval officer or the academy, where he serves as an instructor, just as a private citizen and son.
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Mr Trump has led in some early polls, although analysts have predicted his appeal is likely to wane as the contest develops.
