Thread: Military veterans demand Republicans unendorse Trump and his 'ignorance'

Military veterans demand Republicans unendorse Trump and his 'ignorance'

David Smith in Washington and Tom Dart in Houston

Thursday 4 August 2016 15.22 EDT
Last modified on Thursday 4 August 2016 17.54 EDT

The backlash against Donald Trump escalated on Thursday as angry US military veterans arrived on Capitol Hill urging Republican leaders to withdraw their support for the party’s nominee.

The protest came after a torrid week for the maverick candidate, whose criticism of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of an American Muslim soldier killed in Iraq in 2004, triggered a Republican revolt.

The veterans presented a petition on Thursday to the office of Senator John McCain , a Vietnam war veteran and former prisoner of war who was the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. McCain joined the condemnation of Trump this week, but stopped short of withdrawing his endorsement of him.

“Donald Trump and his surrogates have demonstrated that their bigotry and hate speech know no bounds,” Nate Terani, the first Muslim American to serve in the US Navy Presidential Honor Guard, told reporters. “Donald Trump is a racist and bigot and wholly unfit for this position.”

Terani and other veterans gathered under trees on a lawn outside the US Capitol building, urged McCain to put country before party and “unendorse” the nominee. They said their petition had more than 100,000 names in less than a day, including veterans, their families and ordinary voters.

Alexander McCoy, a former sergeant in the marines, said: “Donald Trump’s reckless ignorance about America’s responsibility to the world shocks me to the core ... I am done listening. I have heard enough. Senator McCain, you served and you sacrificed in ways Trump cannot begin to understand. You have heard enough too.”

Jim Lyons, a former nuclear machinist mate 2nd class in the navy, added: “He sows hate, fear and division ... His bigoted and racist and divisive remarks are not taken lightly by those on the receiving end of them ... From one veteran to another, Senator McCain, please be brave and courageous as you have in the past and please rescind your endorsement of Donald Trump.”

And Crystal Cravens, an ex-army sergeant, said: “When Trump attacks the Khan family, he attacks all military families who have lived experiences that Trump will never know. Trump’s message seeks to divide our country, and a nation divided against itself cannot stand.

“Do not be afraid to condemn this man; he does not represent what this country stands for. Senator McCain, please stand with your fellow veterans, good men and women who sacrificed themselves for this country.”

The petition on MoveOn.org was started by Perry O’Brien, who served as a medic in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division and was discharged as a conscientious objector in 2004. “Every vet I know is absolutely outraged,” he said on Wednesday. “Trump is someone who clearly does not share core American values and the values that we in the military hold dear: respect, sacrifice, selflessness.

“When he said he’s always wanted a Purple Heart, it showed he doesn’t know what a Purple Heart is. It’s like saying: ‘I want to be shot in the face’ or ‘I want to be blown up’. He doesn’t have a certain awareness that there are some things you don’t do or don’t say in this country. Even George W Bush knew not to personally slander a gold star mother.”

Trump received five deferments – four for university, one for medical reasons (heel spurs) – from the military draft for the Vietnam war. O’Brien, an organiser of the #VetsvHate campaign and Common Defense political action committee, added: “I’ve heard a lot of Vietnam veterans joke: ‘Thank God he got a deferment and I didn’t have Donald Trump at my back.’”

Asked about the prospect of Trump as commander-in-chief, O’Brien remarked: “His recklessness, his instinct towards authoritarianism, his unhealthy attraction towards dictators – all these things raise questions. Why would a soldier go to fight knowing that, if they’re killed, President Donald Trump would slander their family? Who would enlist knowing he would attack their mother if she disagrees with him?”

During rallies, Trump has repeatedly stressed his support for the military and pledged to improve conditions for veterans. A Fox News poll, based on interviews with 1,022 randomly chosen registered voters from 31 July to 2 August, found him still leading Hillary Clinton among veterans by 53%-39%. But the survey also found that 77% of voters are familiar with the exchange between Trump and the Khans, and 69% describe his attacks on the family as “out of bounds”.

The Khans appeared at the Democratic convention last week. Brandishing a copy of the US constitution, Khizr Khan criticised Trump’s plan to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country and said Trump has “sacrificed nothing and no one”. Trump hit back by denigrating the Khans on Twitter and in television appearances, including suggesting that Ghazala Khan did not speak on stage because “maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say”.

His attitude towards the Khans – known as “gold star” parents because of their loss – seems to have crossed a line for some. David Callaway, a former Marine corps physician who served in Iraq and Kuwait in 2003, said: “For me it boils down to this: when you are in the military, you swear this oath and it’s service above self. For Trump, it’s all about service to self.

“He has never served any other cause except for his own greed and wealth, and for veterans the idea that this man would support and defend the constitution and the ideals on which our country was founded – that being liberty, equality, opportunity – initially was comical and now it’s just frightening.”

Callaway, 42, from Charlotte, North Carolina, added: “There’s no longer anybody who can make a rational argument that he’s just being unpredictable or he’s trying to keep our opponents on their toes, or he wants to spice up the debate. He’s just a petty demagogue and he will attack anybody at the slightest provocation and that’s not who we need as the commander-in-chief of our military.”

A friend, Dan McCready, served in the marine corps from 2005-09, and was then an inactive reserve, rising to captain. “In my view, Trump is the greatest threat to our constitution and our democracy of my lifetime, and people must view this as a final straw,” the 33-year-old said.

“I think a lot of Americans are living in a Facebook and Fox News distortion field. What I hear from many friends who are conservative is that Clinton is just as bad, that people view the selection as two equally bad choices. I think if you look at the facts and draw your information from reasonable sources, what Trump is doing and what he said is a thousand times worse than what Hillary has done and what Hillary has said.

“It makes me sick to my stomach,” McCready continued. “I think of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who gave up their one precious life for our country. He completely dishonours them. I think Mr and Mrs Khan represent what’s best about America and his belittling them, it really makes me sick.”

Not everyone agrees. In a response to questions from the Guardian posted on the Veterans for Trump website, the webmaster, Michael Kelly, said: “I struggle to understand how so much media attention is given to Mr Khan and virtually nothing given to Pat Smith and Charles Woods [parents of soldiers who died in the 2012 Benghazi attack who have criticised Clinton]. No, I still support Trump over Clinton.”

He added: “Donald Trump displays the ‘rugged individualism’ that makes America great. He exemplifies leadership qualities that I came to admire during my 23 years of military service.”

On Wednesday, Adam Kinzinger, a Republican congressman who is a veteran of the Iraq war, said he cannot support Trump in the wake of the row. “I don’t see how I get to Donald Trump anymore,” he told CNN. “Donald Trump for me is beginning to cross a lot of red lines of the unforgivable in politics.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...on-john-mccain

I believe that Donald Trump would do his absolute best to see that those who serve would have the best equipment and vehicles to protect themselves, that junk yards and elsewhere would no longer be sources for parts, that he would release the chains of PC correctness in allowing those who serve in battle to actually do their jobs. I believe he would see that veterans are honored and provided with the very best care when they return.

We need the increased screening because we do not if we get a Capt. Khan, the hero, or Major Hassan, the killer.

Alright. Have you ever heard Enough is Enough? Let me tell you "military" whiners, Enough is Enough. You are disgracing yourselves. You are making yourselves and pathetic partisan politics or extreme ignorance a focal point in an election that is about saving our country versus dissolving it.

First of all for those suffering extreme ignorance: TRUMP NEVER DISRESPECTED THE KHAN FAMILY. TRUMP DIDN'T ASK FOR THE PURPLE HEART, a Veteran gave it to him, and Trump was very moved and appreciative of this gesture for what it represented. Some day that PURPLE HEART will end up in the Smithsonian or a Trump Presidential Library. This was an historic moment that you are shaming and by shaming this moment you are shaming the Veteran who gave Trump the Purple Heart. STOP BEING STUPID.

As to those playing the pathetic partisan politics, you're free to play whatever politics you want to play. But your day of receiving sympathy and respect by exploiting the service of your loved ones to defeat Trump who wants to fix our country, bring our jobs home and make us safe and great again versus Hillary Clinton who wants to engage in foreign wars that kill your loved ones, then lie to them about why they died, waste our money on these wars and regime changes and threaten our country's solvency and sovereignty, Hillary Clinton who hasn't created a job in her life, who doesn't know that the textile and garment industry left the United States 30 years ago, that a little tie plant that hires refugees not Americans to make handmade ties can't possibly fulfill a contract for mass-produced ties in the millions for a major clothing line, Hillary Clinton who wants to spend money on our infrastructure BEFORE we fix our economy and have the money and revenue to pay for it, a program that will be as big a fail as Obama's Stimulus Farce where things cost 1000 times more than they should and half of them never got built, Hillary Clinton who stole the White House furniture the last time she lived there and her husband couldn't keep his sex organs in his pants while on the job, who leased out the Lincoln Bedroom to the Chinese in return for campaign contributions?!! This is the incompetent white trash you want to put back in the White House??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? And that's before we even get to selling her influence through the Clinton Foundation to Islamic Radicals, handing money over to Rebels in Syria who handed it over to ISIS??!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU???

STOP IT with the PITY PARTY. Your family members like mine who fought for this country are better than that. You should be too, so start acting like it.

You can vote for whoever you want to vote for. You can get out there and go to Hillary's rallies, you can put her signs in your yard, you can send her money, you can Rah Rah Rah Hillary all day long until you lose your voices and you sound like the frog she sounds like. But don't delude yourselves into believing your own crap. That's right. Crap. You want to whine to John McCain to do what?? Unendorse Trump? McCain never endorsed Trump, he's just voting for the nominee for our party like he's always done because if he doesn't, he can't possibly win a Republican primary election in Arizona.

And for your information, most Republicans want John McCain thrown out of the US Senate because he's open borders, supports amnesty for illegal aliens and hasn't met a free trade agreement he didn't vote for. If you think a nation without borders and an impoverished bankrupt nation from open borders and free trade treason is what you or your loved ones fight for in military service, then God Help Us All.

Hey, I'm a veteran and will be voting for Trump. We can't let Clinton win the White House. I just don't see what Trump said that was so horrible. He was attacked first. The Democrats probably knew they could use the Khans to push Trump's buttons. What I don't like is when someone is called a bigot and a racist. They're strong words to call someone. These people are so PC, it's sickening.

Clinton just sits back and the media and her fans adore her. On the other hand, the media and these groups just wait for Trump to say or do anything they can pounce on. Trump should run a TV commercial promoting Clinton Cash. I don't see any commercial sponsored by Trump. He needs to hit back. Most all of the commercials I see are pro Clinton. The only pro Trump commercial I've seen is one sponsored by Carlos Beruff.

Exactly, Scott-In-Fl. That's why this "military families" crap is hard to believe. Either they aren't who they say they are, or they're Democrats, which is fine, or they aren't informed and are falling for the Media Crap. Whatever the situation is, they need to clean it up or they're going to damage attitudes towards military families. They really are putting that at risk at this point.

It's like that so-called military mom, Byrne, who crashed the Pence rally in Nevada. She was a Democratic State Committee person showing up at a Pence rally, holding a Trump Pence sign to get down on the first row, only to try to sabotage the political event. That's why she was BOOED and rightly so. This is not proper or appropriate behavior by a military family in my opinion. Trump did not disrespect the Khans or their son. Quite the opposite. The fabrication that he did was an total invention by the Media to try to discredit Trump. As to Mr. Khan's attack on Trump for his Muslim ban, Trump had every right to respond to that. Just because your son died 12 years ago in Iraq, doesn't give you a Free Pass to falsely attack someone without that person whoever they may be having the same right of free speech to respond.

This is the same group that is mentioned in this article.

http://www.alipac.us/f9/veterans-cal...-trump-335806/

The press is pushing this hard. I will bet that there are less than 20 of them total. Nothing to see here. JMO

Originally Posted by Newmexican

This is the same group that is mentioned in this article.

http://www.alipac.us/f9/veterans-cal...-trump-335806/

The press is pushing this hard. I will bet that there are less than 20 of them total. Nothing to see here. JMO

I think it's the 6 that showed up at his office.

I think it's the 6 that showed up at his office

2 different publications cover 6 people and made it sounds like a big and legitimate organization. The media is truly dishonest. IMO

It's just like for the many days they were attacking Trump over the Khan speech. They knew all along he was an immigration lawyer who makes money from Muslim immigration which is why he hates Trump over his Muslim ban. No Muslims migrating to the US, no immigration legal fees for Khan. Yet they never reported that. Just like the "military Mom" who crashed Pence's rally in Nevada the other day, no one mentioned on any cable news network that she was an active member of the Democratic State Committee of Nevada. I learned about it in an article.