Posted on 07/19/2015 7:25:22 AM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
Donald Trump is facing a firestorm of controversy after his comments about Sen. John McCain's war record.
"He's not a war hero," the presidential candidate said at the 4th annual Family Leadership Summit in Iowa yesterday. "He's a war hero 'cause he was captured. I like people that weren't captured."
Many of Trump's GOP rivals have slammed his comments and called for him to back out of the 2016 race.
Trump said on "Fox and Friends Weekend" today that those calls are "total nonsense" and pointed out that he's still leading in the polls.
"This was picked up by the opponents that aren't registering in the polls," Trump said. "Everybody knows it, and everybody sees it."
Trump explained that he's upset with McCain because the Arizona senator has done a terrible job at helping veterans.
(Excerpt) Read more at insider.foxnews.com ...
The VA just killed a good friend of mine by delaying the diagnoses of his lung cancer for over a year, through their affirmative action hiring practices, until it metastasized to a point where they said he no longer qualified for treatment. He was a 3 tour Marine. He is to be buried Monday near his mother's home in Arkansas.
Trump is amazing. His confidence is rock solid. If he gets another bump in the polls this will be amazing. Those @ssholes on Fox wanted to trip him up but he wanted none of it. All of Trump’s interviews are the same especially when the press is hostile. They simply do not know how to handle Trump because he simply does not back down. These three Fox people look like they have deer in the headlights syndrome. By the end of the interview they are speechless. Vintage Trump.
As governor, I liked Perry, but he is NOT presidential timber.
This the coordinated GOP-e/Media attack on Trump we all saw coming... it may work here, may not ...but we need to make sure it doesn’t happen to Ted Cruz!!!
Baltimore Sun today, nothing until page 19. And even at that, the headline is "Trump Riles up GOP rivals by ripping POW McCain."
Lets all get this straight Trump only called into question McCain and no one else.
I can't stand McCain and think a number of things he has done in the last 15 years is Disingenuous at the very least and somewhat Treasonous at the worst. It's too bad Admiral's Stockdale and Denton are gone, I would like to know what they thought of McCain.
Watch the video before spouting off. He never caved, he called him as war hero from the beginning. Keep spouting the msm talking points though. It will help your boy Jeb! just fine.
And the important take away from the whole thing was that after all of Trumps’ remarks he left the stage to a standing ovation. No booing from anybody. So this McStain thing is a non event.
Freepers trash McStain worse than Trump everyday.
Too bad he wasn’t one of Jeb!s dreamers. Could have sawm right across the river and gotten treatment. Good job McCain!
Worth repeating. I can't understand how mccain keeps getting elected other than democrats crossing over to vote for him.
Trump should hire you as a campaign consultant.
The Trump issue is not about whether McCain is a war hero or not, or even about his failings as a Senator and Presdiential candidate. This is about maligning brave men who served in the military. The only men who become POWs are men who served in the military and were close enough to the enemy to engage them. Those who get captured were brave enough to serve, rather than insult those who did.
At the Phoenix rally, Trump basically stated that the media were liars and can’t be trusted and used the example about a speech he gave where the media truncated it to make it seem that he said something that he didn’t. I would say the same is true in this case…. context is everything and when you listen to the whole speech and realize that there were people shouting in the background so that some things had to be repeated, I don’t think that what he said really was all that noteworthy or anything to get excited about. The worst thing that Trump did was dare to broach a subject that is very prone for media to jump all over and misinterpret. That might not have been all that smart to do…. but the fact that other candidates have locked arms with the media to jump all over Trump frankly says far more about them as being opportunistic scumbags then it does about Trump. What do they think they are being pissed about? What Trump actually said? Or the filtered statement of what the media says that Trump said.
There is another aspect to this…..that word ‘hero’ has got to be one of the most misused words in the English language, so much so that no one knows exactly what it means anymore. Is it simply someone who went to hell and back? Or is it someone who performed a specific brave and courage act that put his/her own life and limb at extreme peril for the selfless reason of providing some benefit to someone else with no regard or consideration that they might get something for what they did. Depending on how you want to define the term, anyone who goes to war is a hero under the application of a broad umbrella…. or the word ‘hero’ is reserved only for a specific act that is worthy of bestowing that label. And the problem is that once you call one person a ‘hero’ using a slightly less elevated level of distinguished service or act, then everyone is a hero. On these grounds and depending on how one wants to define it, McCain could be called a hero at the outset simply for going and that assumes that he is willing to put himself in harm’s way… but I’m not sure the word hero fits for the ‘act of being put in a POW camp’. We can all be grateful for McCain’s service and appreciative of the fact that as part of his service, he suffered greatly in a POW camp….. but that does NOT make him a hero simply because it doesn’t fit under the definition of what a ‘hero’ is i.e. one can’t say it was a brave and courageous act simply because he didn’t actually make a choice to do this… the POW internment was something that was endured but would be something that should be avoided at all cost if he could have done that. One doesn’t choose to be a POW and one can’t say that the act of becoming a POW involved ‘a selfless courageous act that put him/herself at great peril and had the benefit of someone else as an objective with no regard that he/she would receive any reward for what was done.’ This is a bit of a technicality but based on my understanding on how the word ‘hero’ has historically been defined, I think that Trump is right. McCain is a hero under the broad application of the term but he is not a hero for getting captured and put in a POW camp.
I missed that. The establishment and Democrats want him out so bad. The only thing in the way is WE THE PEOPLE.
I served 1968-1976. I don’t believe that’s what Trump’s comments were about at all in context of McCain.
I don’t support him for President, but I do like what he is forcing the collective RINOs and Democrats to do.
We each have our own opinions. I don’t begrudge yours. But in the same vein, you don’t speak for me, nor I for you.
I am with you, the MSM often takes IMO sacred words and bantys them about inappropriately. Hero is one such word. Very few earn it, and mostly those that do, do not believe that they earned it. More appropriate words are, brave, courageous, selfless, clever, cunning, resourceful, innovative, as you clearly stated, Trump clearly differentiated the honored term as he “May” have been a hero, he did not know.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.