John McCain says Donald Trump owes POWs an apology

After Donald Trump faced bipartisan outrage over the weekend for claiming that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) isn't a 'real war hero,' McCain responded in an MSNBC interview Monday with his first public comments.

Trump "owes an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone a prison experience in serving their country," the former POW said. McCain added that while "the great honor in my life was to serve in the company of heroes, I'm not a hero," and that he personally didn't need an apology.

"Who are the real heroes? They're the 55,000 names down on the wall, engraved in black granite that I stop by sometimes early in the morning and when the sun's going down," McCain said, referring to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In his interview, McCain added that he hadn't meant to offend anyone when he called Trump supporters "crazies." "I thought it was a term of endearment," McCain joked. Watch the full interview, below. Jeva Lange