McCain takes veiled swipe at Trump over Vietnam medical deferment

[The Core]

ERICA WERNER
WASHINGTON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OCTOBER 23, 2017
Republican Sen. John McCain declined to label President Donald
Trump a "draft dodger" Monday even as he renewed his veiled
criticism of medical deferments that kept Trump from serving
in the Vietnam War.

"I don't consider him so much a draft dodger as I feel that
the system was so wrong that certain Americans could evade
their responsibilities to serve the country," McCain said on
ABC's "The View." McCain, a former Navy pilot and prisoner of
war, was being pressed about comments in a C-SPAN interview
aired Sunday where he lamented that the military "drafted the
lowest income level of America and the highest income level
found a doctor that would say they had a bone spur."

One of Trump's five draft deferments came as a result of a
physician's letter stating he suffered from bone spurs in his
feet. Trump's presidential campaign described the issue as a
temporary problem.

McCain, meanwhile, spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war
after his plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. Yet
during last year's presidential campaign Trump said McCain was
not a war hero because "I like people who weren't captured."

McCain left little doubt during Monday's interview that he had
been referring to Trump in his C-SPAN comments. When one of
the hosts remarked that people thought he was talking about
Trump because the president had sought a medical deferment,
McCain interjected, "More than once, yes."


McCain was asked to describe his relationship with the
president. "Almost none" he simply said.

The six-term Arizona lawmaker, battling brain cancer at age
81, made his appearance on The View in honour of his daughter
Meghan McCain's birthday. She recently joined the daytime talk
show as one of its panel of co-hosts.

The White House has declined to comment on McCain's remarks on
C-SPAN.

The tacit criticism from McCain reflected the ongoing tension
between Trump and McCain, which began during last year's
campaign and has flared on and off. Trump responded furiously
when McCain's "no" vote sunk Senate efforts to repeal and
replace "Obamacare" earlier this year.

And last week, in a speech in Philadelphia, McCain questioned
"half-baked, spurious nationalism" in America's foreign
policy. Trump lashed out, insisting he would fight back and
"it won't be pretty."

That prompted McCain to retort: "I have faced tougher
adversaries."

The senator burst into sustained laughter on Monday when one
of the hosts mentioned Trump's threats and asked McCain, "Are
you scared?"

After he stopped laughing, McCain said, "I mentioned that I
have faced greater challenges."

"Let's stop insulting each other. Let's start respecting each
other," McCain recommended.

The back-and-forth between the president and McCain stands as
the latest skirmish between the two Republican Party
heavyweights and another example of Trump tangling with GOP
senators who could make or break his agenda in Congress.

Trump in recent weeks has feuded with Tennessee Sen. Bob
Corker and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, although
the president joined with the Kentucky senator at the White
House last week to publicly declare they were on the same
page. Both Corker and McCain could be critical to the success
or failure pf the president's push to overhaul the tax system.

During Trump's presidency, McCain has questioned the
president's immigration policies and warned him against
cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The senator
also criticized Trump in August for saying that both white
nationalists and counter protesters were responsible for
violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

McCain insisted in a tweet at the time that "there's no moral
equivalency between racists & Americans standing up to defy
hate and bigotry" and the president should say so.

[jjci...@gmail.com]

McCain always goes there, like the typical Vietnam Vet who thinks only he did the moral thing by going to 'Nam. There are so many holes in his stupid position, and like the vast majority of vets from 'Nam, he's a little bit crazy. I lived across the street from a fucking fat ass who spends his life resting on his laurels and McCain is infected with the same disease. Just look up "Songbird McCain" and see what those who have delved deeply into matters McCain will never touch upon have come up with about his tour of duty in Southeast Asia, in particular his stint in North Vietnam. They think military service is the one and only way one can do for their country and that simply isn't so. No use arguing it with a narrow-mind jerk like McCain, however, because he closed his mind to any other view long long ago. Only this summer, a nut up in Idaho waltzed over to our campsite, introduced himself, and began to tell me how he had fought anyone over anything all his life until he finally saw the light, that he was the one who was the giant asshole and utterly full of shit. Too bad he didn't realize that he was just as full of shit as ever, only seemingly for a different reason. Here's this clown inviting himself over and attempting to intimidate me just because he's a paranoid fruitcake who ran his stinking, noisy generator all day long for who knows what reason. It's what Vietnam vets are all about and always have been -- "watch out for me cuz I'm a crazy motherfucker!" Yeah, yeah, yeah, you fucking asshole, fuck off. Is there one who isn't a nutcase? I'd like to meet that one. On second thought, forget it and them.