President Donald Trump has poorly handled calls to the families of deceased soldiers, according to Richard Painter, the former chief ethics lawyer in President George W. Bush's administration.
"He has no empathy, no understanding of the human emotions of what people go through because he never did it himself, he stayed home during Vietnam with his sore foot or whatever it was," Painter said Wednesday on CNN's "OutFront," according to HuffPost.
The president received a medical deferment for bone spurs in his feet that disallowed him from serving in Vietnam. His campaign said the bone spurs were in both feet, HuffPost reported.
The president told the pregnant wife of a deceased soldier that the man "must have known what he signed up for," according to Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla. Trump disputed the report, but the soldier's mother confirmed the story to The Washington Post.
"What he's done to Gen. [John] Kelly is atrocious," Painter added, referring to Trump mentioning his chief of staff, whose son was killed in Afghanistan.
In questioning if former President Barack Obama had called families of those who died in combat, Trump suggested in a radio interview that Kelly should be asked if Obama called him when his son was killed.
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