Senators slam Trump’s latest remarks
REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT CRITICIZED FOR DISPARAGING PARENTS OF FALLEN SOLDIER
Donald Trump is worried the U.S. presidential election in November will be “rigged” against him, launching a fresh attack on a political system his candidacy is premised on upending.
Trump also called Democratic rival Hillary Clinton “the devil.”
“I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest,” the Republican nominee told a crowd Monday in Columbus, Ohio.
Later in Mechanicsburg, Pa., he derided failed Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders for his decision to support Clinton.
“He made a deal with the devil,” Trump said. “She’s the devil.”
On another front, the embattled Trump was hit by a rising chorus of criticism from fellow Republicans for his disparagement of the bereaved parents of U.S. army Capt. Humayun Khan, a Muslim who was awarded a Bronze Star after he was killed in 2004 in Iraq.
With Khan’s parents questioning whether Trump has made sacrifices for his country, a controversy regarding Trump’s military record also is resurfacing: the story of how his bony feet kept him out of the Vietnam War.
The billionaire was 22 when he suffered temporarily from bone spurs, which involves calcium deposits building up on the heel bone, The Daily Telegraph reported in February.
The condition was discovered Sept. 17, 1968. It’s not clear whether a military doctor made the diagnosis or whether Trump brought a letter from his own doctor.
Draft board records showed he had passed a similar physical assessment two years earlier, but at that time he was still a student.
Meanwhile, the roll of GOP senators publicly taking Trump to task reached at least nine Monday, including John McCain of Arizona, who said the fact Trump won his party’s nomination doesn’t give him “unfettered licence to defame those who are the best among us.”
U.S. President Barack Obama also rebuked Trump, saying no one has given more for American freedom and security than the families of those who have died for their country.
Obama, in a speech to the convention of the Disabled American Veterans in Atlanta, said “Gold Star families” are a powerful reminder of America’s true strength. (Gold Star families are those who have lost a close relative in military service.)