Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry lashed out at fellow Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sunday over “offensive” comments the real estate mogul made about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
{mosads}Trump questioned McCain’s status as a war hero over the weekend — but the gaffe could cost him with an important base of Republican voters: military veterans.
Perry, who served in the Air Force, called Trump’s comments a “bullet that went through John McCain and hit a lot of us that were in the uniform of this country.”
Trump taunted McCain on Saturday at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” he said sarcastically.
Perry pounced on Trump’s comments in a play for veterans’ votes.
“This time, he’s been able to offend one of the most beloved groups in America, and that’s our veterans,” Perry said. “I just really don’t understand his strategy here.”
“It matters that we have a commander in chief that respects what those individuals have done,” Perry added.