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2020 Democratic contenderand war veteranPete ButtigiegslammedDonald Trump, saying the president exploited his privilege and “fake[d] a disability” to avoid serving in the Vietnam War.
Buttigieg addressed the president’s five deferments from service, focusing mainly on his 1968 diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels, which earned him his lone medical exemption.
“I have a pretty dim view of his decision to use his privileged status to fake a disability in order to avoid serving in Vietnam,” Buttigieg toldThe Washington Postduring alive forum.
“Do you believe he has a disability? At least not that one. That is actually really important, because I don’t mean to trivialize disability, but I think that’s exactly what he did.”
The South Bend, Indiana, mayor alluded toTrump’s mocking of a reporter with a disability, and doubled down on his claim that the president took advantage of his father’s wealth to scheme his way out of serving.
“If you were a conscientious objector, I’d admire that,” he said. “But this is somebody who… took advantage of the fact that he was the child of a multi-millionaire in order to pretend to be disabled so that somebody could go to war in his place.”
President Donald Trump.SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Buttigieg continued, “I know that that dredges up old wounds from a complicated time, during a complicated war, but I’m also old enough to remember when conservatives talked about character as something that mattered in the presidency.”
The 37-year-old served in Afghanistan as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and earned a Joint Service Commendation Medal for his counterterrorism work.
Trump, meanwhile, has said it was ahigh draft number and a “foot thing”that helped him avoid being drafted.
“I love the country. I’ve seen what it can do. I didn’t serve,” he said at a 2015 rally. “And frankly I had deferments because of college, like a lot of people did… I always felt a little bit guilty.”
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Though Trump told theNew York Timesin 2016 he’d received a “very strong letter” from a doctor regarding his bone spurs, the outletreported in Decemberthe podiatrist’s daughter said the diagnosis was given as a “favor” to Trump’s father.
Dr. Larry Braunstein, who died in 2007, allegedlyfabricated the foot conditionas a thank-you to Fred C. Trump for being a good landlord in letting Braunstein rent office space, his daughter said.
“I know it was a favor,” his daughter Dr. Elysa Braunstein told theTimes. “It was family lore. It was something we would always discuss.”
Also at the forum, Buttigieg revealed his plan to counter Trump’s combative campaign style.
“He’s gonna try to get your attention, he’s gonna try to get under your skin. He’s gonna try to distract us… What we’ve gotta learn is kind of how to stiff-arm him. So it’s almost like a sort of crazy uncle management,” he said.
“I don’t have a problem standing up to somebody who was, you know, working on season 7 ofCelebrity Apprenticewhen I was packing my bags for Afghanistan.”
source: people.com
