by Caroline McCain
Following a line of other right-wing wacko birds, Trump insulted a man I esteem and love, a man who has risked his life in service of his country. He insulted my grandfather and attacked the very qualities — loyalty, bravery and selflessness — that he and countless other POWs embody. He mocked the sacrifice many have given and the anguish families have endured when their heroes have suffered alone miles away.
John McCain spent 5½ years in captivity as a POW in North Vietnam. His first-person account of that harrowing ordeal was published in U.S. News in May 1973. Shot down in his Skyhawk dive bomber on Oct. 26, 1967, Navy flier McCain was taken prisoner with fractures in his right leg and both arms. He received minimal care and was kept in wretched conditions that he describes vividly in the U.S. News special report
My grandfather responded with grace and forgiveness — as only a man who was held in captivity for years can. But I’ve been nursing a grudge ever since. Trump’s statement, in my view, is unforgivable, and speaks to the kind of man he is: a coward who has never faced danger in his life, an insecure brat who shirked duty for comfort, and a man who is wholly unfit to serve as commander-in-chief.