Meghan McCain, the daughter of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized President Donald Trump on Thursday for attacking her father’s remarks on a Yemen raid that left a Navy SEAL and several civilians dead, including an 8-year-old girl.
McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, attracted the president’s wrath by criticizing the raid as a failure following a briefing in light of the death of Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, a member of SEAL Team 6, who died when his aircraft crashed as part of a raid targeting the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Qasim al-Raymi.
“When you lose a $75 million airplane and, more importantly, an American life is lost … I don’t believe you can call it a success,” McCain, who heads the Senate Armed Service Committee, told NBC News Wednesday. Trump had declared the raid a success.
Asked about McCain’s comments at the daily press briefing, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Owens “fought knowing what was at stake in that mission.”
But Trump apparently was not satisfied to let the issue lie and unleashed a tweetstorm Thursday, saying McCain shouldn’t be talking about success or failure because only “emboldens” the enemy and called him a loser.
McCain’s daughter, who is a Fox News host and contributor, was not amused. She noted Trump never served in the military and her father was seriously injured in Vietnam.
She also noted her family has a long military history.
This wasn’t the first time Trump had criticized McCain. During the presidential campaign, Trump called McCain a “loser” and not a war hero for being captured by the North Vietnamese after his Navy dive bomber was shot down in 1967. “I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said.
Trump, however, avoided military service with four student deferments and then a medical disqualification for bone spurs in his heels after he graduated from college in 1968. His military experience was limited to five years at the Cornwall-on-Hudson military academy about 60 miles from New York City, during which he was relieved of his command in his senior year because of a hazing incident involving a freshman and a sergeant under his command.
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