The Core
unread,Oct 23, 2017, 4:18:28 PM10/23/17You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
to
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.