Donald Trump, who said at the Family Leadership Council Summit on Saturday that Arizona Senator John McCain is only considered a war hero “because he was captured,” doesn’t think he owes the Senator an apology.
The real estate mogul, who is running for the 2016 Republican nomination for President, said that he likes “people who weren’t captured.” While on ABC News’ This Week with Martha Raddatz this morning, Trump expounded on that, saying that soldiers who are not captured are often forgotten about. Trump told Raddatz that he should not have to apologize to McCain.
“People that fought hard and weren't captured and went through a lot, they get no credit,” Trump told Raddatz. “Nobody even talks about them. They're like forgotten, and I think that's a shame, if you want to know the truth.”
Trump said that he is really disappointed with McCain because of how veterans are treated in the U.S. “I'm fighting for the vets. I've done a lot for the vets,” he said, but that McCain has “done nothing to help the vets.”
On Twitter, Trump has insisted that McCain owes an apology to the people he called “crazies” when Trump spoke in Phoenix about immigration. He also said again that that McCain has done nothing for veterans.
As the Washington Post notes, other Republican candidates were quick to condemn Trump’s comments on McCain. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said that Trump “reached a new low in American politics.” Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tweeted that Trump needs to stop the “slanderous attacks.”
McCain, a Republican, was captured by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. He ran for President in 2008 and lost, another fact that Trump jabbed at on Saturday.
“He lost,” Trump said. “He let us down. I never liked him as much after that because I don’t like losers.”
image courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski/INFphoto.com