Sen. McCain doesn’t name Trump, but takes jab at rich draft dodgers
Oct 23, 2017, 7:25 AM | Updated: Mar 1, 2018, 3:41 pm
PHOENIX — Sen. John McCain appeared to take a jab at President Donald Trump when he laid into wealthy draft dodgers during a TV appearance.
Appearing on C-SPAN3’s Sunday night show “American History TV,” McCain said of the Vietnam War, “We drafted the lowest income level of America and the highest income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur.”
Trump received five draft deferments during the war, the last an exemption based on a diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels.
“That is wrong … that is wrong. If we’re going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve,” McCain said. “… A lot of minorities were forced to serve and to me … that’s a black mark on the history of this country.”
Trump’s other deferments were granted while he was in college.
But on Monday, McCain told reporters that he was not referring to the president when he made his comments.
McCain: “I was against that 40 years ago, so for you people to say I’m taking a shot at Trump over that, you don’t know my record.”
— Andrew Desiderio (@desiderioDC) October 23, 2017
McCain, 81, was a Navy pilot during the war. He was shot down over North Vietnam, was taken prisoner and tortured for nearly six years.
He later Monday told the panel of ABC’s “The View” — which includes his daughter, Meghan McCain — that he didn’t consider the president a draft dodger“as (much as) I feel that the system was so wrong that certain Americans could evade their responsibilities to serve the country.”
During his presidential campaign in 2015, Trump said McCain wasn’t a war hero because “he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”
The senator, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in July, and the president have feuded and complimented one another for the past two years.
Recently Trump has tweeted out blasts of McCain’s votes on the GOP health legislation, while McCain has been critical of the White House’s foreign policy.
Last week the pair traded swipes, again without naming the other.
