Was Trump So Wrong About McCain?

Presidential candidate Donald Trump has drawn more backlash from his fellow Republican candidates Saturday when he said that Sen. John McCain was only considered a war hero because he was captured.

In response to Trump’s comments, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement, “His attack on veterans make him unfit to be commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, and he should immediately withdraw from the race for president.”

Jeb Bush tweeted out a similar statement: Enough with the slanderous attacks.@SenJohnMcCain and all our veterans – particularly POWs have earned our respect and admiration.

While the candidates currently trailing in polls are quick to publicly condemn their rival candidate, Trump offered a very different interpretation of his anti-Mccain quote.

“The reality is that John McCain the politician has made America less safe, sent our brave soldiers into wrong-headed foreign adventures, covered up for President Obama with the VA scandal and has spent most of his time in the Senate pushing amnesty,” Trump wrote in a USA Today op-ed. 

In 1999, after a series of military base closures, Senator McCain votes yes for additional closures.

The 2006 GI Bill expanded education benefits for veterans who served at least three years in the military after the September 11, 2001, attacks. The bill was passed – despite McCain’s opposition and absence from the vote.

While many on both sides of the aisle now recognize that the rebels in Syria were predominantly Sunni radicals, John McCain was the chief Senate proponent of military intervention in Syria. An anonymous soldier stated: ‘I didn’t join the Navy to fight for al Qaeda in a Syrian civil war!’ Many in the military shared this sentiment.

In 2012 – with record amounts of soldiers coming back to America with PTSD – Sen. McCain voted against limiting the length of time soldiers can be deployed to 12 months.  

If John McCain is a war hero – something every individual has the right to decide on their own – he is a war hero who has turned his back other war heros. While constantly propagating the image of a friend to the military, John McCain consistently votes against veterans – and puts them in harm’s way. 

Although many in the media and the  GOP candidates are claiming that Trump’s attack on McCain is an attack on all veterans, that is not at all the case. If John McCain represented all millitary, his voting record should back up the claim – which it doesnt. 

“McCain has abandoned our veterans,” Trump wrote Sunday. “I will fight for them.”