Bone spurs my eye.....

McCain appears to criticize Trump's draft deferment with 'bone spur' quip

By LOUIS NELSON

Sen. John McCain lamented the manifestations of economic inequality in Vietnam War-era military service in an interview that aired Sunday night, criticizing those who “found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur” to avoid military service.

The remark appeared a criticism of President Donald Trump, who was granted five draft deferments – four for college and one for bone spurs in his heel – and did not serve in the military. But a spokeswoman for the senator said his comments were not specifically directed at the president.

“One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest-income level of America, and the highest-income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur,” McCain (R-Ariz.) said, without attacking the president by name. “That is wrong. That is wrong. If we are going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.”

"Senator McCain was referring to one of the great injustices of the Vietnam conflict that led to a majority of poor, undereducated and minority draftees," McCain spokeswoman Julie Tarallo said. "Senator McCain has long criticized the selective service program during the Vietnam War, which left the fighting to the less privileged."

McCain, a former Navy pilot during the Vietnam War, was a prisoner of war for five-and-a-half years, held and repeatedly tortured in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison. Given the opportunity to return home ahead of some who had been captured before him, McCain refused.

The Arizona senator’s status as a former POW – for which he is often revered as a hero by members of both parties – has seemingly not won him much favor with Trump, who has clashed regularly with McCain. The lawmaker has been among the most vocal GOP critics of the president and was among the Republican senators whose “no” votes scuttled the party’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare last summer.

The feud between the two men dates back to the presidential campaign, when McCain said in an interview that Trump “fired up the crazies” in his home state of Arizona. Even more famously, Trump said McCain was “not a war hero” and that “I like people who weren’t captured.”