Donald Trump today took lots of shots at John McCain, including––most shockingly––the fact that he was a prisoner of war while serving in Vietnam Trump’s been feuding with McCain after McCain said Trump is “firing up the crazies” with his outlandish rhetoric, and Trump fired back by calling McCain a “dummy. Trump sat down on stage with pollster Frank Luntz at the Family Leadership Summit and continued to fire back at McCain (while still bragging about the crowd he drew because that’s his modus operandi).
At one point, he said he supported McCain in 2008, but doesn’t like him very much now. Luntz pointed out that McCain’s a war hero, and that’s when Trump said this: “He’s a war hero ’cause he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”
Also, just for the record, Trump got draft deferments. Donald Trump continued his attacks on fellow Republicans by mocking 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain’s military background, saying “He’s a war hero ’cause he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” Speaking with host Frank Luntz, Trump returned fire at McCain who earlier criticized the bombastic businessman for “firing up the crazies” last weekend during a rally in his home state of Arizona.
“He’s a war hero cause he was captured!” Trump said, before adding, “I like people that weren’t captured” causing the audience to laugh.
Trump continued, “He’s a war hero, but right now he said some very bad things about a lot of people. So what I said was, ‘John McCain, I disagree with him they are crazy.’ And, very importantly — I speak the truth — he graduated last in his class at Annapolis. So I said ‘nobody knows that.’ That he graduated last or second to last, and he was upset, and I said ‘For what? Telling the truth?'”
McCain was shot down over Hanoi in 1967 and remained a POW until 1973, during which he time he was tortured and refused repatriation back to the US while leaving his fellow servicemen behind.
Update- 1:13 pm EST: Trump got roundly savaged and mocked on Twitter, especially by conservatives who essentially told him to get bent. Watch the video below, via C-SPAN:Donald Trump might finally have crossed the line. Appearing on Saturday at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa,donald trump took his running feud with Arizona Sen. John McCain to a new level. trump “He was a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. “I like people who weren’t captured.” The remark, which came after days of back-and-forth between McCain and Trump, was met with scattered boos. McCain, a former Navy pilot, spent roughly five-and-half years in a notorious North Vietnamese prison known as the “Hanoi Hilton,” where he was repeatedly tortured. He spent two of those years in solitary confinement. Trump received four student deferments from military service between 1964 and 1968.Republicans quickly distanced themselves from Trump’s remarks.
“Advice to @realDonaldTrump: Apologize for this pronto. Otherwise beginning of end,” Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, who is close to McCain, tweeted.“John McCain is an American hero. I have nothing but respect for his service to our country,” tweeted Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. ”.@SenJohnMcCain is an American hero & all POW’s deserve our nation’s highest debt of gratitude. @realDonaldTrump’s comments are disgraceful,” tweeted former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. DONALD TRUMP
