Donald Trump declined the chance to take back a controversial attack on John McCain as the White House continued damage control following a story claiming the president repeatedly denigrated the sacrifices of U.S. service members.
On Thursday, a report from The Atlantic claimed that the president had repeatedly made statements to top aides expressing confusion at why service members were revered for dying or getting wounded in battle. The story claimed that Trump skipped out on a visit to a cemetery in France where American service members killed in World War I had been buried, reportedly saying that the cemetery is “filled with losers.”
The story has since been corroborated by a number of other news outlets, though both the White House and Trump himself have vehemently denied it was true. He also denied that he called McCain a “loser” after the Arizona senator’s death from brain cancer in 2018, though many others noted that he had already publicly called McCain a loser during his presidential campaign in 2015.
As The Daily Beast noted, a reporter asked Trump on Friday about this past public criticism of McCain, in which he suggested that the Arizona senator was “not a war hero” because he was shot down and captured during the Vietnam War.
Asked if he regretted making those comments, Trump reiterated that he and McCain did not see eye to eye and said he did have respect for him. However, he did not take back his past remarks.
“I say what I say and I never got along with John McCain. I disagreed with John McCain…I wasn’t a fan,” Trump said. “I disagreed with many of his views…I disagreed with John McCain on a lot of things. That doesn’t mean I don’t respect him. I respected him. But I really disagreed with him on a lot of things and I think I was right, I think time has proven me right to a large extent.”
The Atlantic had reported that Trump pushed back against honoring McCain following the former Republican presidential candidate’s death, allegedly not understanding why people revered him. Sources close to Trump said that he struggled to comprehend why Americans would join the armed services when there was supposedly no tangible benefit for them.
The alleged remarks denigrating U.S. troops have prompted a significant backlash for Trump, with the campaign of Democratic candidate Joe Biden seizing on the report to make a campaign ad slamming the president.
