The Republican National Committee and a bevy of GOP presidential candidates are repudiating Donald Trump Saturday after the reality television star-turned-White House hopeful attacked the military service of Sen. John McCain, a former POW.
Appearing at a cattle call in Ames, Iowa, the real estate mogul told a crowd he was no supporter of the 2008 Republican presidential nominee. “He was a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. “I like people who weren’t captured.”
Trump’s critique of McCain may have done what previous remarks could not quite do: open the floodgates to denounce him. After all, the perceived political risk inherent in defending the record of a war hero is far less than that of getting involved in contentious debates around immigration.
McCain, who was held captive in Vietnam for nearly six years after his airplane was shot down over Hanoi, has been critical of the Trump’s bombast, saying that it had “fired up the crazies.” Trump’s already-controversial mocking of the Arizona senator is only the latest in a series of provocative statements and scandals that have swirled around his campaign, including his comment that many Mexican immigrants are “rapists” and his claim “The illegals come in, and the illegals kill their children.”
“Senator McCain is an American hero because he served his country and sacrificed more than most can imagine. Period,” said RNC communications director Sean Spicer. “There is no place in our party or our country for comments that disparage those who have served honorably.”
No comments:
Post a Comment