‘It’s Nonsense’: Tapper Hammers Trump for Saying McCain Shouldn’t Discuss Yemen Raid Failure
President Donald Trump took to Twitter this morning to personally attack and insult Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) over McCain’s criticism of the raid in Yemen. The Arizona lawmaker has labeled the mission a “failure” in the wake of heavy civilian causalities, the target not being taken down, and Yemen withdrawing permission to American special operations to carry out missions there.
In response to McCain’s criticism of the raid, Trump claimed that McCain shouldn’t be talking about the success or failure of missions while essentially calling him a loser. Trump also invoked the death of a Navy SEAL to characterize the raid as a “winning” mission.
CNN’s Jake Tapper took umbrage with Trump’s tweets and posted a multi-part thread to Twitter to explain that it was “nonsense” to say anyone, “let alone a former POW,” shouldn’t be able to discuss failures and successes of missions.
New thread on the notion that anyone, let alone a senator, let alone a former POW should not talk about success/failure of missions. https://t.co/sghmR3QwD5
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
2/ in short: it’s nonsense. @SenJohnMcCain is the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Legislative branch oversight is vital.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
3/ This notion that no one should criticize missions — McCain was a tenacious critic of the Obama WH and its missions for 8 years.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
The CNN anchor also brought up Republicans’ (and Trump’s) constant criticism of Benghazi in the past, along with pointing to Trump’s previous denigration of McCain’s status as a war hero.
4/ Is there a “except Benghazi” clause to this new “no criticism” rule? THIS IS WHAT THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH DOES. Or is supposed to.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
5/ “He is not a war hero..He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK?” POTUS said of McCain in 2015.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
6/ by any empirical standard of adult behavior and decency that statement is vile.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
7/ POTUS never apologized for it and @SenJohnMcCain sucked it up and moved on. But let’s not pretend insulting POWs is EVER acceptable.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
8/ No one ever said McCain cant be criticized or attacked for his actions — but read what he went through as a POW https://t.co/ESRFYZkpIa
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
Tapper added that this is the president’s MO — anyone who criticizes or challenges him must be attacked.
9/ more broadly POTUS personally attacks anyone – judicial/legislative branches, media -whenever challenged despite merits. Unsustainable.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
And further noted that in the past Trump has criticized previous presidents over mission failures.
10/ And need it even be said that POTUS showed no such respect for previous presidents and missions? https://t.co/E3bVb4bVms
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
11/ (we could do this all day h/t @JerylBier) https://t.co/VJMqa4f7vg
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2017
[image via screengrab]
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