House Democrats lean on veterans’ message during Trump-Khan feud
By Elena Schneider
08/05/2016
[…]House Democrats’ half-dozen veterans running for Congress this year have been front and center this week, as the party reacted to Donald Trump’s week-long feud with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq a decade ago.
[…]In New York, Mike Derrick said Trump’s comments were “offensive.” In California, Doug Applegate said Trump “doesn’t get it.” And everywhere in between, Democratic House candidates who didn’t serve in the military pulled together veterans to denounce Trump and criticize local Republican candidates who continue to endorse him, part of down-ballot Democrats’ year-long strategy to drag opponents down by tying them to Trump.
[…]Jim Mowrer, a Democrat who’s challenging Iowa Rep. David Young, said he’s “seen first-hand the sacrifice of our service members and our families,” and he’s “outraged” and “disgusted” by Trump’s recent comments, as well as Young’s refusal to un-endorse Trump after the incident. “If you don’t have the courage to stand up to Trump when he attacks a war hero, how can you be able to stand up for Trump when he’s president?” Mowrer said.
[…]Young did issue a statement: “Captain Khan is a hero who paid the ultimate sacrifice with his service to America” and thanked his family “for his honorable and faithful service from a grateful nation.”
[…]But he and other Republican members have generally shied away from mentioning Trump while trying to distance themselves from some of his comments – which Mowrer and other Democratic candidates jumped on this week.
[…]The NRCC did not respond to requests for comment.
[…]Derrick said he believes Trump’s latest comments are trickling into his race. He is having more and more conversations with Republicans, he said in an interview, in which “they say, ‘Mike, I don’t know that I’m going to change my party registration, but you can sure count on my vote.'”
[…]GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik’s campaign manager, and other Republican campaigns contacted for this story, did not respond to requests for comment.
[…]Applegate, who is a heavy underdog in his race against GOP Rep. Darrell Issa in Southern California, has targeted Issa (a fellow veteran) over Trump’s recent comments, including one about receiving a Purple Heart from a supporter this week.
[…]”My father received two purple hearts in World War II. I understand what those mean and Donald Trump simply doesn’t get it,” said Applegate, who was deployed during the Iraq War in 2006. “Everything he says points to someone who’s wholly unqualified to be commander in chief of U.S. armed forces. I don’t know a single veteran who doesn’t view it the same way.”
[…]In other districts, Democratic candidates put forward local veterans to speak up on their behalf. A Gold Star father in Arizona, Jeff Latas, called GOP Rep. Martha McSally (a veteran herself) a “political coward” for not disowning Trump this week. In Nebraska, a group of veterans called Republican Don Bacon, a retired Air Force general, “unwilling to stand up to the Republican Party” in a statement blasted out by Democratic Rep. Brad Ashford.