Donald Trump Still Committed To Michigan Visit Despite Veterans' Controversy
By Christy Strawser
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Presidential wannabe Donald Trump is committed to visiting Michigan for a fundraiser, despite the controversy surrounding recent comments he made about immigrants and Sen. John McCain.
Trump drew ire with this line on McCain, which was roundly condemned by Democrats and people inside his party: "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured."
Trump is vising the Birch Run Expo Center Aug. 11 for a fundraiser for the Genesee and Saginaw Republican parties.
Michael Moon, chairman of the Genesee County Republican Party, said Sunday Trump is still welcome.
"I'm not going to shut somebody down," Moon told The Detroit News. "There's no tolerance anymore. Everyone's screaming for tolerance but no one has tolerance for even the people who make moronic statements. He has the right to say what he wants to say."
McCain, who survived five years of torture as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War, had already lashed out at Trump, saying his candidacy "fired up the crazies."
Many are noting the irony that while the non-hero McCain was struggling through torture and broken bones not to reveal the identity of his father in enemy interrogations, Trump was tooling around Manhattan in his father's limousine, escorting beautiful women around town.
"John McCain is a hero, a man of grit and guts and character personified," Secretary of State John F. Kerry said in a statement. "He served and bled and endured unspeakable acts of torture. His captors broke his bones, but they couldn't break his spirit, which is why he refused early release when he had the chance. That's heroism, pure and simple, and it is unimpeachable."
This is the second wave of controversy the publicity-obsessed real estate baron has created since announcing his candidacy for president as a Republican. Trump first waded into the fray with comments about immigrants including the idea that he would build an inexpensive wall, paid for by Mexico, to keep out immigrants.
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best," he said. "They're not sending you, they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they're telling us what we're getting [. . .] They're sending us not the right people. It's coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over South and Latin America."
Fellow Republican candidate Jeb Bush, whose wife is Mexican, was among the many who said they were outraged.
"No one suggests that we shouldn't control our borders - everybody has a belief that we should control our borders," Bush said. "But to make these extraordinarily ugly kind of comments is not reflective of the Republican Party. Trump is wrong on this," Bush said, adding he was personally offended.