No apology to McCain
Trump says that he does not owe McCain an apology saying that that vets are treated “like third-class citizens” and that McCain hasn’t done anything to help them.
People that fought hard and weren’t captured and went through a lot, they get no credit. Nobody even talks about them. They’re like forgotten, and I think that’s a shame, if you want to know the truth…I’m very disappointed in John McCain because the vets are horribly treated in this country. I’m fighting for the vets. I’ve done a lot for the vets.
He also says he received a standing ovation at the campaign event where he spoke, that nobody was insulted. On not serving in Vietnam:
If I would have gotten a low number, I would have been drafted. I would have proudly served. But I got a number, I think it was 356. That’s right at the very end. And they didn’t get — I don’t believe — past even 300, so I was — I was not chosen because of the fact that I had a very high lottery number.
Asked if he would continue name calling:
When people attack me, I let them have it back. People are constantly attacking my hair. I don’t see you coming to my defense.
Criticizes McCain
After McCain calls his audience “crazies,” Trump criticizes McCain’s military and Senate record during a question-and-answer session at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa.
He’s not a war hero. He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK? I hate to tell you. He is a war hero because he was captured. OK, you can have — I believe perhaps he is a war hero. If a person is captured, they’re a hero as far as I’m concerned…But you have to do other things also. I don’t like the job John McCain is doing in the Senate because he is not taking care of our veterans.
Trump ‘fired up the crazies’
McCain criticizes Trump, commenting on his Phoenix rally:
It’s very bad. This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful to me. Because what he did was he fired up the crazies…We have a very extreme element within our Republican Party. We did to some degree regain control of the Party. Now he galvanized them. He’s really got them activated. We’ll see how this plays out, but there is some anger in my state. People who otherwise might be more centrist are angry about this border situation.
Not ‘at war’
The Secretary of State repeatedly neglects using the term “war” when describing the military conflict of the United States against ISIS, explaining why the term “war” is not appropriate to use. Kerry:
What we are doing is engaging in a very significant counterterrorism operation. It’s going to go on for some period of time. If somebody wants to think about it as being a war with ISIL, they can do so, but the fact is it’s a major counterterrorism operation that will have many different moving parts.
The comment generates confusion on Capitol Hill. McCain:
It’s hard to find a response to that. Then what was the president talking about [Wednesday] night?