Navy veteran Harkin calls Trump ‘draft dodger’

CEDAR RAPIDS - Donald Trump's lack of respect for U.S. Sen. John McCain's service, including the time he spent in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, 'just goes to show you how dumb he really is,” retired Sen. Tom Harkin said Monday.

Harkin, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran, called Trump a 'chicken hawk” and 'draft dodger,” and said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee demonstrated a 'total lack of understanding” when he said a year ago that McCain is a war hero only 'because he was captured.”

Trump made the comments at a July 18, 2015, Family Leader Summit forum in Ames that attracted 10 candidates. Moderator Frank Lutz asked about calling McCain a 'dummy.”

'He's a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. 'I like the people who weren't captured.”

McCain isn't a war hero because he was shot down, but because he served and because he flew missions over enemy territory, Harkin said during a call organized by Hillary Clinton's campaign. The call coincided with Monday's national security theme at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

'Many of my friends lost their lives flying those kinds of missions,” said Harkin, who served five years of active duty in the U.S. Navy and three in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

McCain also is a hero because when the North Vietnamese wanted to release him early because his father was an admiral, he refused, Harkin said.

'John could have ... left early, left the horrible conditions, the torture and everything else and he said ‘no,'” Harkin said. 'As long as the other men were there, he was not going to leave early.”

Trump probably doesn't understand, Harkin said. 'He was a chicken hawk. You know, he was a draft dodger. He had a bad knee or something like that that kept him supposedly out of the military. He could have volunteered just like so many people did.”

The Trump campaign did not reply to a request for a response.

According to a Washington Post report, Trump avoided military service through a series of education deferments before being declared medically unfit for service. Trump has said he had bone spurs on his heels.