Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has stirred controversy again after questioning the war record of Republican senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Mr Trump, the property mogul and reality television star who has polled strongly in a crowded Republican race despite controversial comments about Mexican immigrants, refused to apologise to Mr McCain, the 2008 Republican candidate, for saying that he was “not a war hero”.
He made the comments about the Arizona senator on Saturday to social conservatives gathered at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, the first state in the country to choose candidates.
“He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Mr Trump said in an interview when discussing his disappointment at Mr McCain’s failed 2008 presidential bid.
Mr McCain (78), a US naval pilot, was shot down in 1967 during the Vietnam War. He was held captive for five years and tortured by the North Vietnamese, refusing to be released early. He cannot raise his arms above his head because of injuries he sustained as a prisoner.
The two men have been exchanging barbs in recent weeks. Mr McCain said Mr Trump had “fired up the crazies” in the party by calling Mexicans immigrants drug-dealers, criminals and rapists.
‘Weak on immigration’
Mr Trump (69), who didn’t serve in Vietnam after receiving student and medical deferments, dismissed Mr McCain as an “incompetent” politician, saying he was “very weak on immigration”. His remarks have drawn out many other Republican candidates and some Democrats to attack him and defend Mr McCain.
Former Texas governor Rick Perry, another of the 16 major Republican candidates, said Mr Trump's remarks made him unfit to be president and called on him to drop out of the race.
Senator Lindsey Graham, another Republican candidate, said he expected voters to reject the star of the Apprentice television show in the party's early nominating primaries.
“Here’s what I think they’re going to say: ‘Donald Trump, you’re fired!’” he said, referring to Mr Trump’s television catchphrase.
Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton called the attack on Mr McCain "shameful", while even US secretary of state John Kerry released a strongly worded statement supporting a Republican rival he regularly spars with.
“If anyone doesn’t know that John McCain is a war hero, it only proves they know nothing about war and even less about heroism,” said Mr Kerry.
Mr Trump leapfrogged former Florida governor Jeb Bush, brother of former president George W Bush, to lead in a Fox News poll of Republicans last Friday.
Asked yesterday whether Mr McCain was owed an apology, Mr Trump told ABC talk show This Week: "No, not at all."
He said the conservatives he spoke to in Iowa were not insulted by his comments and that he left the stage to a standing ovation. “I will say what I want to say, and maybe that’s why I’m leading in the polls,” he said.
