In an interview about the Vietnam War taped last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appeared to criticize President Donald Trump for receiving a draft deferment for bone spurs during the Vietnam War.
The Arizona senator did not mention the President by name but specifically called out “high-income Americans” who got doctors’ notes for a “bone spur.”
“One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest-income level of America, and the highest-income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur,” McCain told C-SPAN in an interview that aired Sunday. “That is wrong. That is wrong. If we are going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.”
Trump deferred the draft five times, four while he was in school and the fifth for bone spurs. He acknowledged in a 2016 New York Times interview that he visited a doctor who wrote him a letter for draft officials. Trump said that the bone spurs were “temporary” and “minor.”
“I had a doctor that gave me a letter — a very strong letter on the heels,” Trump told the Times.
McCain served in the Vietnam War and was tortured as a prisoner of war. During the 2016 campaign, Trump suggested he did not believe McCain was a true war hero because he was “captured.”
Watch a clip of McCain’s interview on C-SPAN. He makes the comment about bone spurs at the 1:55 mark.
TONIGHT – @SenJohnMcCain talks about the Vietnam War’s legacy on C-SPAN, at 6 & 10pm ET. pic.twitter.com/WnZT0n8Mcn
— American History TV (@cspanhistory) October 22, 2017
Senator McCain’s point is well taken. But would anyone really want Donald Trump to serve in our Armed Forces? The guy is a walking disaster.
True Senator but that knife needed to be inserted 2 years ago and twisted.
It’s about flippin’ time that someone on the GOPer side said that and, say what you will about McCain, he is the best person to have made this point about Draft Dodgin’ Donnie.
He would have gotten the Neidermeyer treatment.
Call me when he apologizes for Sarah Palin.