Monday, on CNN, two of Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) fellow prisoners of war defended him against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s comments at Saturday’s Family Leadership Summit in Iowa that McCain is “a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”
On “New Day,” Captain Charlie Plumb said, “We were over there, in uniform, fighting for our way of life. … And in some small way, we were in uniform to protect Donald Trump’s right to free speech.”
He continued, “I thought about this just immediately when I heard Trump’s remarks, that if it hadn’t been for men and women in uniform, if we’d all gotten deferments in college, there’d be no opportunity to be a billionaire in the United States.”
“You have to consider the source,” he added, “Trump has never served in the military. He doesn’t know — we used to call them draft dodgers. That’s basically what we’re looking at.”
Plumb did state that while he appreciates and respects some of what Trump says, doesn’t need an apology, and the whole issue of McCain’s heroism isn’t important since McCain has never claimed to be a hero, there’s no chance Trump will get his vote.
On “At This Hour,” Colonel Leo Thorsness said, “I think Donald Trump’s comment was just — it was just a big insult to all of us who were shot down, captured, those who were killed in Vietnam, or any war in defense of your country. We’re trained military people, you know, they say, ‘Go to war’ and we salute three times and ‘Yes, sir.’ And that was the most highly defended air space in the world around Hanoi with SAMs, flaks, guns, MIGs, and my odds of being shot down…were two out of three. And to say you’re sort of a failure in a way if you get shot down, Trump wants people who weren’t shot down, but we gave so much.”
He added, “I wish Donald Trump could have spent one day in torture, and his views would be different. But, you know, he’s a bright guy and if you measured success by dollars, Americans do that sometimes, certainly he’s successful, but there’s a lot of ways to measure it. And one way to measure it is you don’t build yourself up by tearing other people down, and that’s what he’s doing. He calls other candidates stupid and dumb and John McCain — I just — I wish he would — he’s a bright guy, but he could do so much better. And I wish he weren’t so boisterous and arrogant and self-serving.” And that Trump would be a “bigger man” if he apologized.
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