WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. John McCain has issued a veiled criticism of President Donald Trump’s medical deferments that kept him from serving in the Vietnam War.
In an interview with C-SPAN last week, McCain lamented that the military “drafted the lowest income level of America and the highest income level found a doctor that would say they had a bone spur.”
One of Trump’s five draft deferments came as a result of a physician’s letter stating he suffered from bone spurs in his feet. Trump’s presidential campaign described the issue as a temporary problem.
McCain spent six years as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967.
Trump derided McCain’s service in 2015, stating his fellow Republican wasn’t a “war hero” and adding, “I like people who weren’t captured.”
McCain’s spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a request for comment Monday.
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