Trump, the GOP and Our Veterans

The GOP has a long history of trashing our heroes-- and it didn’t start with Donald Trump.

In 2000, John McCain had upset George W. Bush in the New Hampshire primary and Bush had to win the South Carolina primary to stay in the race. Karl Rove masterminded — behind the scenes — a nasty campaign of deception that alleged that McCain had turned traitor when he was a POW in North Vietnam. In addition, Bush’s supporters made false and scurrilous racist allegations against McCain.

In 2002, Max Cleland was running for re-election for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. Cleland was a wounded Vietnam War veteran who lost three limbs in that conflict. Subsequently, Cleland served as head of the V.A. during the Carter Administration.  Max Cleland’s draft dodging opponent trashed his patriotism by running TV ads that paired his pictures with those of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. John McCain said of one ad: “It’s worse than disgraceful, it’s reprehensible.” Cleland lost.

Two years later, the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth lied about John Kerry’s service in Vietnam. This PAC was funded by people with close ties to the Bush campaign. Several mainstream media sources debunked their false allegations. Nonetheless, Bush was narrowly re-elected and had a disastrous second term.

Republican attacks on our heroes reached a new low when Donald Trump came on the national scene. Early in his candidacy Trump attacked John McCain: “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured. He lost and let us down. I’ve never liked him as much after that. I don’t like losers.” Nonetheless, Trump maintained his front runner status and continued to rise in the polls.

In 2016, Trump attacked a Gold Star family when he slammed the parents of Humayun Khan, an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

During a meeting at the Pentagon in 2017, Trump insulted a room of top generals — all of whom had served in combat in the wars after the attacks of 9/11/01. Trump ranted: “I wouldn’t go to war with you people. You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.”

That same year, Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery with retired Marine General John Kelly. Trump said: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?,” while he was standing with Kelly at the grave of Kelly’s son, Robert, who was killed in Afghanistan.

Donald Trump, in a White House meeting, asked that a military parade exclude wounded veterans, because “nobody wants to see” amputees.

In a 2018 trip to France, Trump canceled a visit to honor our troops at a WWI cemetery: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for dying for our country.

And just this weekend, Republican Mike Flynn (the former Army Lieut. General and traitor who was pardoned by Trump) called for a Myanmar-style coup in the U.S.

The Republican party will cease to be a relevant party if it doesn’t denounce Trump’s reprehensible treatment of our veterans.  For the rest of their lives, every elected Republican should be asked if they condemned Trump’s comments on our veterans.