Reuters
While addressing the annual Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa on Saturday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took another shot at John McCain, this time questioning the latter's status as a war hero. “He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. “I like people that weren’t captured.” McCain was taken as a prisoner of war for five years during the Vietnam War. Trump, meanwhile, received four student draft deferments between 1964 and 1968 and an additional medical deferment after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
As he left the stage Saturday, Trump reportedly told political consultant Frank Luntz, "See, I get a standing ovation. Other people don't." Later, when asked about his comments on McCain, Trump denied saying he is not a war hero and said, "If somebody's a prisoner, I consider them a war hero." Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has served in the military, released a statement calling Trump's comments "a new low in American politics." "His attack on veterans make him unfit to be Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, and he should immediately withdraw from the race for President," Perry said.