GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump said on the Today show Monday morning that his statement, on Saturday, that Senator John McCain is not a war hero was taken out of context.
“I’m not a fan of John McCain,” he said, and added that he thinks McCain is a war hero. “He’s done a terrible job for the vets … The VA is a scandalous, corrupt organization. It’s a disgrace how it is run.”
Trump faced criticism over the weekend for saying that McCain was only a war hero because he was held as a prisoner for more than five years during the Vietnam War.
McCain was “a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. “I like people who weren’t captured.”
Trump on Monday accused the media of misconstruing his words.
“I said it four times that he is a war hero,” Trump said, adding that soldiers who are not captured are rarely talked about.
Asked on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday if Trump owed him an apology, McCain said, “I don’t think so. But I think he may owe an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone the prison experience in serving their country.”
Trump has refused to apologize, even as other 2016 presidential candidates urged him to retract his comment.