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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., joined at right by the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., spoke on Capitol Hill in Washington, today, during the committee’s hearing where Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan testified. Donald Trump went after McCain in a series of twwets for suggesting that last week’s U.S. raid in Yemen wasn’t a success.
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump today lashed out at Republican Sen. John McCain, accusing the veteran of emboldening the enemy for disputing the administration’s insistence that the deadly U.S. military mission in Yemen was a success.
Trump took to Twitter to assail the chairman of the Armed Services Committee after the Arizona lawmaker initially called last month’s raid a “failure.” McCain softened his stand in a statement Tuesday in which he said that while many objectives of the raid were met, “I would not describe any operation that results in the loss of American life as a success.”
“Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media,” Trump said over several tweets. “Only emboldens the enemy! He’s been losing so … long he doesn’t know how to win anymore.”
The raid was supposed to be an intelligence gathering mission but turned into a lengthy battle with al-Qaida fighters in which a Navy SEAL, Ryan Owens, was killed, a $75 million aircraft was lost and there were multiple casualties, including women and children.
“Our hero … Ryan died on a winning mission (according to General Mattis), not a ‘failure.’ Time for the U.S. to get smart and start winning again!” Trump tweeted. Retired Gen. Jim Mattis is Trump’s secretary of defense.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer has called the raid “absolutely a success.”
McCain, who spent 5½ years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, has not been shy about criticizing Trump, especially over his accommodating attitude toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and his controversial immigration order suspending all immigration for citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries, including Yemen, for 90 days.
But today, McCain was not eager to respond to Trump’s latest missives.
“I have my responsibilities on the Armed Services Committee and we just had a hearing where the general in charge of Afghanistan says we’re not winning. We’re in a stalemate. That’s where I’m focusing my efforts,” he said. “I just have to do my job.”
McCain, 80, cruised to a sixth Senate term in November, defeating a Democratic challenger who hounded the senator for standing by Trump even after the billionaire businessman insulted him as a “loser” and appeared to question whether he is a war hero.
Trump, who received draft deferments during the Vietnam era, also said there was nothing heroic about McCain’s military record after he was shot down during the war.
McCain dropped his support for Trump in early October after a 2005 recording surfaced in which Trump boasted about groping women. The move led to an outcry from conservative voters firmly behind Trump. McCain has sought to limit his public criticism of Trump to policy differences but often struggles to hide his exasperation when encountering reporters in the corridors of the Capitol.
Trump should worship the ground someone like Senator McCain walks on. Instead, he chooses to criticize a war hero. The Don would not last a week in the conditions Officer McCain lived in for over 5 years.
Trump said, only losers get captured…Trump respects ALL military and law enforcement???…#MAGA
Per Trump: Killed soldiers are heroes and Captured soldiers are zeroes…Get It, Got it, Good…#MAGA
Yes, and people who get draft deferments are “smart.” From now on, we should sincerely elect only people smart enough to avoid going to war and smart enough to not pay taxes. You also need to be really smart to use Twitter, and to tell the world that the last POTUS was an impostor from Kenya.
Therefore, Donald J Dump is THE SMARTEST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD ! ! ! He will make America MAGA again!
@Iwandcah, totally agree. POTUS Trump 4-F because of heel spurs on both feet. What a wimp. During a news conference, he couldn’t recall WHICH heel had been involved, prompting his campaign to release a statement saying it was BOTH. I guess the OTHER foot is always stuck in his mouth, that’s why. SAD…
Where’s @Keonigohan? How come he’s not bashing anyone here, yet? Maybe cuz he got HIS foot stuck in HIS mouth like HIS POTUS….bwahahahaaaa…
McCain is just telling the obvious truth: it was a botched, tragic raid that killed innocent women and children gut failed to accomplish any military objective. Trump is a loser from beginning to end.
IRT Iwandcah, Sen. McCain has lost his way and his reputation over the years. He must retire. It’s McCain who should respect the ground President Trump occupies.
Another fine example of the Chump eating his own. If he cant preach it or should I say tweet it, he’ll lash out at anyone that he wants silenced! These next 4 years cant go by fast enough, because thats all this idiot is getting!!
But will there be another 4 years?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/in-their-own-words-how-top-trump-advisers-view-muslims/ar-AAmLs95?li=BBnb7Kz
Will there even be 4? Congressional GOP leadership won’t tolerate Trump’s behavior that long.
What Donald….no can handle criticism! Resign before you’re impeached!
Yep, Trump can dish it out but he definitely can’t take it. WUSSY!
Totally agree. It’s after 7 p.m. and I don’t see any POTUS backers yapping away. Sleep early don’t they. Hope they had their warm milk and cookies.
LOL, Donald…….YOU’RE FIRED ! ! !
I do not question the characterization of John McCain as a war hero. He not only flew dangerous missions into heavily defended territory but also, as a POW, refused early release (because he was the son of the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific) without his fellow prisoners. I do, however, question his statement that “I would not describe any operation that results in the loss of American life as a success.” Taken literally, he would be denying that the battles of D-Day, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima were successes, all of which resulted in enormous American fatalities. President Trump has the unenviable job of ordering U.S. military personnel into “harm’s way” just as Eisenhower, Nimitz, and MacArthur, acting on the policy directives of FDR, did in World War II. Perhaps it is time for the president and the senator to each “take a step back” and ensure that they work cooperatively for our national defense goals.
Mr. Trump has no intention of working cooperatively with anyone. If he has done nothing else in the past two disastrous weeks, he has proven that he believes he is King.
You may not have been in the military, but a mission can accomplish the goal and not be a success. The action in Yemen was a failure by any measure, since it didn’t accomplish the goal and it turned the host country against us. We ended up killing innocent civilians including children, which caused the Yemeni government to restrict access to their country to mount additional raids. Doesn’t seem like a success to me.
Trump is in the job two weeks and he’s already a failure.
Good points. How can the mission be a success if a US soldier and innocent women and children died in the attack and the host country Yemen has now banned the US from staging another similar attack. Agree if Trump keeps on going he will not get a second term however before then he can do the people of Hawaii a favor and withdraw all rail funding and release the findings of the Oahu rail project to the nation and the world. That will result in the beginning of the end of the rail project like the eventual shut-down of the failed Obamacare Hawaii Health Connector despite the extreme attempt by State legislatures Green and Roz Baker to keep it going, including lying to the public about how ending the Health connector would jeopardized Hawaii’s prepaid health care law. And if the National and Hawaii Demos are smart, which they are not, and the reason why Trump got elected, they would stop attacking Tulsi as she has the best chance to defeat Trump in 2020 then Pocahontas Warren, Biden, James Webb, socialist Bernie Sanders or loser/ grand liar Hillary Clinton.
Yes, Senator John McCain is a true American hero.
He’s also a successful politician who knows how to put the right spin on a statement. He’s a great leader who wants the best for this country. If he can help to make Drump look as bad and stoopid as he really is, that could hasten the departure of the POTUS.
Donald…….YOU’RE FIRED ! ! !
When are responsible Republicans going to stand up to this guy and do/say the right thing?? What a joke he is !!! This circus gets worse and worse as each day goes by.
New details have come out about Trump’s phone call with Putin. When Putin suggested extending the New START agreement to limit nuclear weapons, which was signed in 2010, Trump didn’t know what Putin was talking about. He had to put Putin on hold so that his aides could explain what New START is. Trump, predictably, said it was a bad deal, but, of course, he had no idea what he was talking about. Trump also bragged about how popular he thinks he is. Trump doesn’t read briefing papers (or anything else, it seems) if they’re more than a page long, and he has no hesitation about calling a foreign leader without a briefing. He wants all briefing papers to be no mare than a page long. In addition they must be bullet point lists with no more than 9 bullet points on the single page.
Where do you find this fake news. Who’s the mole?
You are just plain pathetic.
It wasn’t on Fox. It was from a real news source, dozens of them in fact. Putin’s Puppet is going down in flames. (Today’s Gallup Poll 52% disapprove of Trump, only 42% approve. Public Policy Polling: half of American voters now want Trump impeached.)
“He’s been losing so … long he doesn’t know how to win anymore.” Now, is that something we want to hear the U.S. president say? I don’t. I want a president who doesn’t taunt, demean, insult, call people “losers.” Especially people like John McCain, who has sacrificed so much for this country. Trump needs to grow up, but sadly, we all know it’s too late for that.
Trumpf been to NAM! Flew in his jet to inspect sweat shop making his brand. What does McCain have over him? McCain was a POW, but trumpf flight was delayed, basically making him a POW of NAM. Geez….
Regarding:
“…Trump, who received draft deferments during the Vietnam era, …”
Why bring that up ?
Why has the press been silent about Horny Bill Clinton fleeing to Canada to avoid he draft ?