Trump Adviser Baldasaro Fires Back at Press: ‘Stop Using Veterans as Political Pawns’

Tuesday at a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City, while explaining his contributions to veterans’ charities, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump got into several heated exchanges with the press that prompted Trump adviser for veterans issues and a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives Al Baldasaro to fire back and defended Trump.

Baldasaro said, “Mr. Trump. first of all, for the record, I’m a state representative from New Hampshire, ten years on the veterans affairs committee, 22 years in the marine corps, retired first sergeant. What I want to clarify here, first of all, I would never, ever in a million years put my name on a candidate that did not from his heart look me in the eye and tell me he’s concerned about veterans. That’s Donald Trump. I met him over a year ago. I’ve been involved with many fund-raisers. There are many scam artists out there. He did the right thing by vetting these groups there. If you look at some of the groups giving 20 cents, 40 cents on the dollar and spending the rest for their nice lavish trips.”

“He gave 100 percent,” he continued. “The liberal media is the only ones that have been calling me on the foundation. I’m the former chairman. I’ve been dealing with this stuff for years as a veterans activist. Stop using veterans as political pawns. You got a guy outside, McCoy, go do a google search on his Facebook. He’s out there, his picture is with Clinton. They are using veterans as political pawns, it must stop Donald Trump is doing this from the heart. You’re all focused on the way he’s raising money and you’re not looking at the 22 veterans that are killing each other every day. You’re not concerned about the thousands of veterans that are on wait lists. Look at his plan on this Trump website. He talks about medical cards, he talks about fixing the VA, he talks about competition. I think the liberal media, and I’ve been dealing with you a long time, need to get your head out of your butt, focus on the real issues. Thank you.