McCain hits Trump where it hurts, attacking ‘bone spur’ deferments in Vietnam

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website October 22, 2017:

In an Oct. 18 C-SPAN interview Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) discussed the legacy of the Vietnam War and lamented that those from “the highest income level found a doctor that would say they have a bone spur” to get out of the draft. (C-SPAN)

Update: McCain elaborated on his comments Monday in an appearance on “The View”: “I don’t consider [Trump] so much as a draft-dodger as I feel that the system was so wrong that certain Americans could evade their responsibilities to serve the country.”

After a week in which President Trump endured not-so-veiled criticisms from his two predecessors as president and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), McCain delivered another broadside that seems clearly aimed at Trump — in the most personal terms yet.

McCain, whose status as a war hero Trump publicly and controversially doubted as a 2016 presidential candidate, appeared to retaliate in kind against the president in a C-SPAN interview about the Vietnam War airing Sunday night. In the interview, McCain pointed to wealthy Americans who were able to get out of being drafted into service in the conflict in which he spent years as a prisoner of war. And he pointed to a very specific type of deferment which Trump just happened to use. Continue reading “McCain hits Trump where it hurts, attacking ‘bone spur’ deferments in Vietnam”