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Title: Trump creates outrage in Iowa claiming that John McCain wasn't a war hero because he was a captured POW – and dodges questions about his own Vietnam War draft deferments
Source:
Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... all-half-field-stays-home.html
Published: Jul 18, 2015
Author: David Martosko, US Political Editor
Post Date: 2015-07-18 13:59:06 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 55741
Comments: 201
Donald Trump escalated his feud with Sen. John McCain on Saturady in Iowa by suggesting only his capture and five years as a prisoner of war turned him into a 'war hero.' 'He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured,' Trump said on stage at the Family Leader Summit in Ames. McCain spent years in a Viet Cong prison after the plane he was flying was shot down over Hanoi in October 1967.He was tortured enough to produce permanent physical disabilities. Trump got student and medical deferments and never served in uniform. He told reporters after his speech that a bone spur in his foot led to the medical exemption from the draft. Asked which foot had disqualified him, he couldn't remember. 'You'll have to look it up,' Trump said dismissively. 'It's in the records.' Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who is running 10th in an average of national polls, immediately called for Trump to quit his presidential campaign. ANGRY: Trump attacked Sen. John McCain and said the only reason he is considered a war hero is his capture and imprisonment as a POW during the Vietnam War. NOT A HERO? Sen. John McCain spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison after his plane was shot down durign the Vietnam War WALKING WOUNDED: McCain's torture left him disfigured and permanently damaged 'I respect Sen. McCain because he volunteered to serve his country,' Perry said in a statement. 'I cannot say the same of Mr. Trump.' 'His comments have reached a new low in American politics. His attack on veterans make him unfit to be Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, and he should immediately withdraw from the race for President.' Trump focued considerable rhetorical artillery on McCain Saturday, mocking his bona fides on military and veterans issues: 'He graduated last in his class at Annapolis,' he claimed. 'Well, second-to-last.' In a press conference following his speech, Trump backtracked a few inches about prisoners of war. 'If somebody's a prisoner, I would consider him a war hero,' he said. 'But her have lots of heroes who wersn't prisoners. The billionaire's tussle with McCain began after he drew a reported 15,000 people to a campaign event in Phoenix to talk about illegal immigration. McCain, a proponent of comprehensive immigration reform, called his audience 'crazies.' Trump responded that the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee was a 'dummy.' In an emailed statement to DailyMail.com, Trump said after his press conference: 'I am not a fan John McCain because he has done so little for our Veterans and he should know better than anybody what the Veterans need, especially in regards to the VA.' 'He was extremely disrespectful to the thousands upon thousands of people, many of whom happen to be his constituents, that came to listen to me speak about illegal immigration in Phoenix last week by calling them "crazies",' Trump carped. 'These were not "crazies" – these were great American citizens.' 'I have great respect for all those who serve in our military including those that weren’t captured and are also heroes,' he insisted. Republicans auditioned all day for Christian conservatives, parading their bona fides in the nations' first presidential primary state. But not everyone searching for votes showed up. The cattle-call brought nine of the Republican Party's 15 declared presidential candidates to a single stage, less than a day after Democrats did the same thing – with all five of their White House hopefuls – a two-hour drive to the east. The Christian-right sponsoring group, The Family Leader, attracted mostly the candidates from the conservative end of the GOP spectrum. Led by political kingmaker Bob Vander Plaats, the group wields outsize influence in the Hawkeye State whenever Republicans barnstorm through during the run-up to the quadrennial Iowa caucuses. The $10 billion man was otherwise a crowd favorite in Ames, Iowa, speaking about his religion before a group of Christian conservatives Donald Trump's childhood church was First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. He said he was in church just last week Anti-abortion politics were visible in Ames, Iowa on July 18, 2015 at the Family Leader summit, a gathering of Republican presidential candidates hosted Missing in Ames was the Republican front-runner Jeb Bush, the sometimes-moderate New Jersey governor Chris Christie and the usually moderate former New York governor George Pataki. Nowhere to be found were senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Paul's libertarian brand of Republicanism, makes some religious conservatives wary. Carly Fiorina, the GOP's only female While House contestant, also didn't make the trip. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the day's first candidate-speaker, wrapped up his time on stage in a Q&A with pollster Frank Luntz by asking if he could read aloud from a book. 'It's a Bible,' he said, drawing wild cheers from the audience. He read from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, verse 48: 'From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded' – explaining it as a parable about America's global primacy and its obligations to keep its people, and the world, safe. Rubio blasted the Obama administration's recent nuclear bargain with Iran, calling it 'a complete sham.' He also castigated the president for sidestepping the role of Islam in global terror. 'It's not radical Presbyterian terrorism,' he said. 'It's radical Islamic terrorism. ... We have to target them militarily in their safe havens.' Abortion politics were visible both outside and inside the event venue in Ames, Iowa. Sign-wavers pointed to right-wing outrage over a surreptitious video that showed a Planned Parenthood medical doctor describing how she tailored her abortion procedures in order to preserve fetal body parts for human biologics companies. Outrage over an undercover video sting of Planned Parenthood brought anti-abortion Iowa Rep. Steve King kicked off the day with anger over 'that in-quotes "doctor"' whom he said was killing 'babies that could be viable outside the womb. It is sickening to watch.' Seizing on the political moment as a springboard for new laws tightening abortion restrictions, Knig said: 'This is our chance.' Also in evidence was a lingering resentment over this month's stunning Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex weddings nationwide. 'Marriage = 1 [man] and 1 [woman],' a projected image declared above the stage as the crowd filed in, using icons to represent male and female. 
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 180.
#1. To: A.K. Stone (#0)
'He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured,' Trump said on stage at the Family Leader Summit in Ames. Trump got student and medical deferments and never served in uniform. He told reporters after his speech that a bone spur in his foot led to the medical exemption from the draft. Asked which foot had disqualified him, he couldn't remember. That's your boy. You must be so proud of him.
What do you disagree with?
A guy with the moral values to call his future wife to the national press a great piece of ass. A guy that slings sh*t at those who served in Vietnam but can't remember in which foot the bone spur got him his medical pass out.
Have you taken a close look at McCain’s moral values? I think not, let’s do so now. The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind. … to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children. And you, SOSO, will condemn “a guy (Trump) with the moral values to call his future wife to the national press a great piece of ass” while you give a free pass to McCain on his “moral values” and call him a hero. Aren’t you being grossly hypocritical? It surely looks like you are.
For the last time, I am not a fan of McCain. But his military service demands more respect than your Dollar Donald and his band of pied piper morons deny. "I think not, let’s do so now. Her, let me fix this for you "I think not." Over and out.
You condemn Trump for his morals and yet you give McCain a pass on his. You are a hypocrite and McCain is no hero.
How many times have I told you that I am not a fan of McCain? Now you can just go f*ck yourself.
How many times do I have to tell you that you are still are a hypocrite....for condemning Trump and giving McCain a pass for doing worse, by calling McCain a "HERO." McCain is no hero.
And how many times do I need to tell to go f*ck yourself? I don't suffer fools well, especially disingenuous ones. You are totally insufferable.
As long as you continue to expose yourself as the hypocrite you are. McCain is no hero.
He was a military prince, son and grandson of an admiral. He partied his way through Annapolis, graduating at the very bottom of his class. He was a lousy pilot and didn't follow procedure in attack and got himself shot down by AA because of it. While ejecting, his poor adherence to training caused him to be severely injured and permanently maimed (due to lack of medical care in POW camp). If he wasn't a military prince, the Navy would probably have never let him fly, let alone fly a warplane. All that said, McCain did suffer maiming from his service, he was in POW camp a long time and didn't go home when they offered to let him go. That was the most honorable thing he did in his Navy career. It would have been easy to just quit after he'd been maimed. There are a lot of other vets that are much bigger heroes than McCain. Bob Kerrey and Bob Dole both had better much records in elite units and lost limbs, for instance. But he served and suffered so "war hero" may be the only term that fits, even if he was a lousy pilot rightly held in low regard in the military.
I would prefer to reserve the appellation "war hero" to those few who have done something truly heroic and have earned praise as a "war hero." This seems to be watering down the term to where conduct deserving of a good conduct award would also be deserving of some heroism or valor in combat award. "War hero" should be reserved for those few who have stood out from the rest of us who have served honorably, but without such distinction.
Me too. But we don't have a category like "patriot martyr" or "war victim" so we just call them all war heroes. I get Trump's point. A hero is the guy who makes our enemies die for their country because that saves the most lives of our own military by making wars shorter and victorious. I recall Bob Dole and Bob Kerrey, both maimed. But they were members of elite units, Doe in elite mountain troops in Italy and Kerrey in the SEALs. So they were real fighting men that saw combat many times. McCain was such a lousy pilot that he got himself shot down in short order over Vietnam. It isn't fair to say that all three were equally "war heroes" when the other two were much better fighting men than McCain was and both were more maimed in their service than McCain is.
You mean like Stockdale?
Maybe America needs a "war hero" and as a result of not so many in contemporary tymes, there is a psychological backlash about Trump's publick expressions concerning McCain. If there wasn't any merit about Tump's suggestions, there would be little controversy. So, Trump struck a sensitive nerve, resonnating in America. That is two for two, btw.
#182. To: buckeroo (#180)
Maybe America needs a "war hero" and as a result of not so many in contemporary tymes, there is a psychological backlash about Trump's publick expressions concerning McCain. If there wasn't any merit about Tump's suggestions, there would be little controversy. So, Trump struck a sensitive nerve, resonnating in America. That is two for two, btw. You mean the nerve that's resulting in a backlash on Trump? Like the Wizard Paul, Trump has his share of mindless followers, true believers worthy of the Pied Piper, aka Donald Dollar. Like the Wizard Paul Dollar Donald will run as a 3rd Party candidate. The fix is in with the Clintons. I hope you enjoy the following 8 years of Empress Hillary that Trump will hand her. A fitting succesor to Emperor Obama. Yep, that's two for two alright.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestDonald Trump escalated his feud with Sen. John McCain on Saturady in Iowa by suggesting only his capture and five years as a prisoner of war turned him into a 'war hero.'
#5. To: SOSO (#1)
#13. To: A K A Stone (#5)
What do you disagree with?
#124. To: SOSO, A K A Stone (#13)
What do you disagree with?
A guy with the moral values to call his future wife to the national press a great piece of ass.
[…]
But here is another Mrs. McCain…she is McCain’s first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965. She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.
[…]
But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier.
[…]
For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.
[…]
‘My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.’ Some of McCain’s acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centred womaniser who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to ‘play the field’. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons…. his new father-in-law, Jim Hensley, was a multi-millionaire who had impeccable political connections.
[…]
Carol was told she may never walk again, but when doctors said they would try to get word to McCain about her injuries, she refused, insisting: ‘He’s got enough problems, I don’t want to tell him.’ H. Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, future presidential candidate and advocate of prisoners of war, paid for her medical care. When McCain…was released in March 1973, he told reporters he was overjoyed to see Carol again. But friends say privately he was ‘appalled’ by the change in her appearance. At first, though, he was kind, assuring her: ‘I don’t look so good myself. It’s fine.’
[…]
‘I thought, of course, we would live happily ever after,’ says Carol. But as a war hero, McCain was moving in ever-more elevated circles. Through Ross Perot, he met Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California. A sympathetic Nancy Reagan took Carol under her wing. But already the McCains’ marriage had begun to fray. ‘John started carousing and running around with women,’ said Robert Timberg. McCain has acknowledged that he had girlfriends during this time, without going into details.
[…]
He was also fiercely ambitious, but it was clear he would never become an admiral like his illustrious father and grandfather and his thoughts were turning to politics. In 1979 – while still married to Carol – he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage. Carol and her children were devastated.
[…]
Meanwhile McCain moved to Arizona with his new bride immediately after their 1980 marriage. There, his new father-in-law gave him a job and introduced him to local businessmen and political powerbrokers who would smooth his passage to Washington via the House of Representatives and Senate.
[…]
And yet despite his popularity as a politician, there are those who won’t forget his treatment of his first wife. Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights, said: ‘I have been following John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is – deceit. ‘When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it. ‘Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better. ‘This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.’
[…]
Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics. ‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said. ‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’
#140. To: Gatlin, A K A Stone (#124)
Have you taken a close look at McCain’s moral values?
#141. To: SOSO (#140)
#143. To: Gatlin (#141)
You condemn Trump for his morals and yet you give McCain a pass on his.
#144. To: SOSO (#143)
#145. To: Gatlin (#144)
How many times do I have to tell you that you are still are a hypocrite
#146. To: SOSO (#145)
And how many times do I need to tell to go f*ck yourself?
#148. To: Gatlin, SOSO (#146)
McCain is no hero.
#166. To: TooConservative, Gatlin, SOSO (#148)
But he served and suffered so "war hero" may be the only term that fits
#178. To: nolu chan (#166)
I would prefer to reserve the appellation "war hero" to those few who have done something truly heroic and have earned praise as a "war hero." This seems to be watering down the term to where conduct deserving of a good conduct award would also be deserving of some heroism or valor in combat award.
#179. To: TooConservative, nolu chan (#178)
McCain was such a lousy pilot that he got himself shot down in short order over Vietnam.
#180. To: SOSO (#179)
Replies to Comment # 180.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 180.
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