John McCain urges Donald Trump to apologise to veterans
"He's not a war hero," Trump told a political gathering on Saturday.
John McCain said yesterday that property mogul and White House hopeful Donald Trump should apologise to veterans after he dismissed the US senator's military record because he was taken prisoner.
Republican primary candidate Trump sparked outrage at the weekend when he appeared to suggest that a serviceman who was captured could not be a real hero, in reference to McCain's time in a Vietnamese prison.
Many rallied to McCain's defence, but yesterday the defeated former presidential candidate downplayed the attack on his own record, while defending those he served with.
"Those who inspired us to do things that we otherwise wouldn't have been capable of doing, those are the people that I think he owes an apology to," McCain said.
"I think the point here is that there are so many men and some women who served and sacrificed and happened to be held prisoner and somehow to denigrate that in anyway, their service, I think is offensive to most of our veterans."
McCain was responding for the first time since the notoriously outspoken Trump's attack. The 78-year-old decorated aviator was shot down, captured, tortured and spent five years as a POW during the Vietnam war.
"He's not a war hero," Trump told a political gathering on Saturday. "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, OK?"
Trump is known for his off-the-cuff and provocative statements, but his latest on McCain sparked a firestorm of bipartisan condemnation.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, a Democrat, lashed out at the comment, as did former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Republican.
