Just hours after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump questioned the heroism of veteran Sen. John McCain, many of the his colleagues, who are, like Trump, seeking the GOP nomination, came out blasting the real estate mogul for his comments.
On Saturday,
at the Iowa Family Leadership Summit, which attracted many Republican hopefuls, Trump mocked McCain's reputation as a war hero, saying he doesn't really consider him one because he was captured.
"He’s not a war hero," Trump said. "He’s a war hero because he was captured? I like people who weren’t captured. ... Perhaps he is a war hero, but right now, he said some very bad things about a lot of people."
Trump is continuing his attacks on McCain on Twitter today, but this time, McCain's powerful colleagues are fighting back.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close friend of McCain's,
posted a series of tweets to defend the Arizona Republican. McCain "went through hell" during his service in Vietnam, when he was captured and held prisoner for six years by the Viet Cong, Graham said.
Graham was one of McCain's strongest supporters during the 2008 presidential campaign, and while he's also competing against Trump, he wasn't the only one speaking out against him Saturday. Other rivals insisted that the billionaire, who is surging in the polls, is not fit to be the president.
Other GOP leaders coming out to defend McCain include:
Trump also referred to McCain as a '"loser." Trump received four student deferments from military service between 1964 and 1968, according to Politico. He has told reporters another medical deferment he received after graduating was for a bone spur in his foot. When asked which foot on Saturday, Trump told reporters to look up the records.
McCain, said Trump, "is not so hot," and "I supported him for president. I raised $1 million for him. He lost, he let us down. He lost. I have never liked him as much after that."
He also refused to apologize for calling McCain "a dummy" earlier this week for slamming his supporters, saying he doesn't think that his words are inappropriate from a person running for president.
"I'm in Phoenix, we have a meeting that is going to have 500 people," said Trump. "We get a call from the hotel. Turmoil. Thousands and thousands of people are showing up in three or four days. The hotel says, we cannot handle this.'"
Eventually 15,000 people showed up, said Trump, "wonderful, great Americans," and McCain "called them all crazy. They were not crazies. They were great Americans...I know all about crazies. He insulted me and he insulted everybody in that room."