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Sen. John McCain Appears to Criticize Trump Draft Deferments

HeadlineOct 24, 2017

Republican Senator John McCain took an apparent swipe at President Trump over his multiple deferments from the draft during the Vietnam War—including a 1968 medical exam that declared Trump unfit to serve due to bone spurs in his heels. Sen. McCain was speaking in an appearance Monday on ABC’s “The View.”

Sen. John McCain: “One of the great inequities of the Vietnam conflict was the lowest-income Americans went and fought and were drafted, and those who were wealthy enough to have a doctor to say, 'Hey, you've got a bone spur,’ or ’You’ve got migraines,’ or whatever it is, then they were excused.”

McCain made a similar comment to C-SPAN over the weekend. He later insisted the “bone spur” references weren’t directed at the president. In 2015, then-candidate Donald Trump said McCain was only considered a war hero because he was captured by the Vietnamese army, adding, “I like people who weren’t captured.”

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