Did you hear the one about how Donald Trump thinks John McCain is a L-O-S-E-Rfor getting captured and held as a prisoner of war that one time, in the Nam, for five and a half years? Of course you did, because we, along with the rest of the entire US of A, can't stop talking about it.
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Except for McCain, who spent the weekend quietly sitting back and enjoying the sound of all of his Republican frenemies who don't like him, and Democrats whoreallydon't like him but are still far more gracious than he's ever been, defending his oh-so-noble honor and talking about how he is the Greatest American War Hero Evah! He love love LOVES to hear that, even while pretending to be real humble about it. (And here's your semi-regular reminder that if you have somehow not read the 2008 Rolling Stone profile of McCain, and how he has spent his life perpetuating the great myth of his own greatness, you need to do that, ASAP and post haste and right now, double quick.)
On Monday, McCain, always shy and reluctant to appear on the TV, finally emerged to spoke some words his own self about that:
Asked on MSNBC's Morning Joe if Trump owes him an apology, McCain responded: "No, I don't think so. But I think he may owe an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone the prison experience in serving their country."
"There are so many men, and some women, who served and sacrificed and happened to be held prisoner and somehow to denigrate that, in any way, their service I think is offensive," he added.
Joe Scarborough tried to get McCain to agree that Trump is an extra-super asshole for insulting McCain, and all prisoners of war, because Trump managed to defer his way out of service, including with a medical deferment for some kind of injury in his foot so bad he can't remember which foot. But the always kind and even-tempered McCain refused to take that bait:
"For me to look back in anger at anyone is nonproductive," he said. "And our country was divided in an almost unprecedented fashion during the Vietnam War, and when I came home I was shocked. So I've worked ever since to try to heal those wounds."
Yup, that sure sounds like McCain, always keeping his cool, never giving into his hate and turning into a raging anger bearall the time. Good thing McCain does not want Trump to apologize to him, because Trump has insisted he ain't gonna. He wrote an op-ed in which he said he has nothing to be sorry for because McCain reallyisa loser who has "abandoned our veterans" and "made America less safe." The only reason Trump's fellow Republican candidates are criticizing him for his comments is because they're all a bunch of jealous losers too:
A number of my competitors for the Republican nomination have no business running for president. I do not need to be lectured by any of them. Many are failed politicians or people who would be unable to succeed in the private sector.
Trump, meanwhile, has arealrecord of supporting veterans, says Trump:
My record of veteran support is well-documented. I served as co-chairman of the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commission and was responsible, with a small group, for getting it built. Toward this end, I contributed over $1 million so our warriors can be honored in New York City with a proper memorial.
However, as we recently journalismed at you, Trump's claim that he "built" the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is, um, disputable, given that he only attended two meetings of the commission, one of which was "with a reporter who was profiling him."
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He did, however, have some real nice sentiments to express, back in 1984, about the veterans on that commission:
They’re very small thinkers. They’re stockbrokers that were in Vietnam and they don’t have it.
Ya see? Trump has a long and well-documented record of his position on Vietnam vets, which is that they are losers and small thinkers. No wonder he'd never want to waste his time hanging out with them, especially not dumb captured John McCain. Not anymore, anyway. It was a different story in 2008:
Real estate mogul Donald Trump is endorsing Sen. John McCain: “I’ve known him. I like him. I respect him. He’s a smart guy and I think he’s going to be a great president,” Trump said Wednesday night on CNN’s Larry King Live. “I endorse him.” [...]
[C]ampaign finance records show Trump, who has donated to McCain for years, and gave the legal maximum to the Arizona senator in May. The same month, the members of Trump’s family — wife Melania Knauss and children Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric — also gave McCain the maximum individual donation allowed under federal campaign finance laws.
Ah, but that was probably before Trump heard about McCain's time as a POW and just how bad for America McCain really is. Now he knows better.
“For me to look back in anger at anyone is nonproductive,”
John McCain is an Oasis fan. Who could have guessed that?
His father's watch?