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Veterans to McCain: Dump Trump

Veterans from various organizations dropped a petition at his office

Arizona Sen. John McCain has come under pressure from some veterans to rescind his endorsement of Donald Trump. (Daniel A. Anderson/For CQ Roll Call file photo)
Arizona Sen. John McCain has come under pressure from some veterans to rescind his endorsement of Donald Trump. (Daniel A. Anderson/For CQ Roll Call file photo)

Various veterans groups stopped by Sen. John McCain’s office Thursday to drop off a petition urging him to rescind his endorsement of Donald Trump.   

The group of veterans supported by MoveOn.org and Common Defense delivered the petition with what they said was more than 100,000 signatures to encourage McCain to take back his support of his party’s presidential nominee.  

McCain criticized the Republican presidential nominee for disparaging the family of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, a Muslim soldier who was killed in Iraq in 2004. Trump’s comments came after the slain captain’s father Khizr Khan slammed the real estate mogul at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last week.  

Trump also criticized Khizr Khan’s wife Ghazala, implying that she did not speak at the convention because of her Muslim faith.  

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The GOP’s New Trump Test

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“We don’t seek to divide our community by speaking out against a grieving family and mock the silence of a grieving mother,” said Crystal Cravens, who served as an Army sergeant.  

Alexander McCoy, who served as a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, said it was important that McCain rescind his endorsement of Trump given that Trump had belittled the Arizona senator’s military service last year.  

“I think he is the moral leader that we can trust right now to stand up for the values that the Republican Party says it represents,” McCoy said.  

McCain was not in his office when the veterans stopped by. Most of Congress is out during the August recess. Nate Terani, who served in U.S. Navy intelligence and the Arizona National Guard, said he hoped to meet with McCain as a constituent.  

“Sen. McCain has proved he is a maverick,” he said. “He’s proven that he will listen to the people.”  

McCain criticized Trump’s remarks earlier this week, saying “while our party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us.”


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