Perry: Donald Trump owes McCain an apology
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Saturday said businessman Donald Trump should apologize to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for disparaging remarks he made about the 2008 Republican presidential nominee’s military record.
“As an individual who has worn the uniform of this country, I was highly offended by what Donald Trump said about John McCain,” Perry, a 2016 presidential candidate, said at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa.
{mosads}”Donald Trump owes every American, and in particular John McCain, an apology,” he continued.
Hours earlier at the same event, Trump, also a 2016 contender, mocked McCain for being a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.
“He was a war hero because he was captured,” Trump sarcastically told host Frank Luntz. “I like people who weren’t captured.”
Perry said Saturday afternoon that Trump’s comments were “as disturbing to me as anything I’ve heard” while running for the White House.
“There was an individual who doesn’t understood, or doesn’t care to, people who serve the United States of America,” he said of Trump, adding that the comments about McCain should disqualify the brash mogul as a presidential candidate “and as a commander-in-chief of this country.”
The comments about McCain are the latest in a string of controversial statements Trump has made that have alarmed Republican establishment members, even as the real estate magnate has risen in GOP presidential polls.
Republican leaders raced to defend McCain after Trump’s appearance at the Family Leadership Summit, with the Republican National Committee saying the mogul’s comments about the Arizona senator have “no place in our party or our country.”
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