Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump appeared on NBC's "Today" show on Monday morning, saying that illegal immigrants get treated better than many U.S. veterans and repeatedly accusing the hosts of taking his remarks about Sen. John McCain's military service out of context.
Trump called the Department of Veterans Affairs a "scandalous, corrupt organization" and said the media "has done a false number, as usual," reported The Washington Times.
Over the weekend, Trump said that McCain, a Vietnam vet who was captured, tortured and imprisoned for five years, is "not a war hero." Trump went on to say that McCain is considered "a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured."
On the "Today" show, host Matt Lauer read Trump's quote to him and asked if he would repeat it to McCain's face.
"Excuse me, Matt," Trump said. "You're the media and you do the same thing. The next sentence was, 'He is a war hero.' I said that. But they never want to play it. And you don't want to play it."
According to Trump, co-host Savannah Guthrie "started it out by saying I said that he wasn't a war hero - I didn't say that. And if you would have let it run just another three seconds, you would have [seen] I said very clearly he is a war hero."
"I have absolutely no problem with that," Trump said. "What I do have problems with is that [McCain] called 15,000 people that showed up for me to speak in Phoenix, he called them crazies because they want to stop illegal immigration ... and they were great Americans, and he has not taken care of the vets."
Trump continued, "Frankly, illegal immigrants get treated better than many of our vets - it's a disgrace what's happening in this country. And John McCain has done nothing about it but talk."
McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he doesn't believe Trump owes him a personal apology, but said he "may owe an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone the prison experience of serving their country," reports Politico.
"I'm not a hero," McCain continued, "but those who were my senior ranking officers, people like Col. Bud Day, a congressional Medal of Honor winner, and those that have inspired us to do things that we otherwise wouldn't have been capable of doing. Those are the people that I think he owes an apology to."
Trump's comments about McCain came as Republican Party leadership is already struggling to contain the blowback from a number of controversial statements made by the billionaire real estate mogul in recent weeks, including remarks about some illegal Mexican immigrants being rapists.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Trump a couple weeks ago to tell him to "tone it down," and a number of presidential hopefuls criticized his recent comments about McCain. Both former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said he should withdraw or be disqualified from the presidential race.
Trump is doing better than ever in the polls, though. The latest Fox News poll places him at the front of the pack among GOP contenders, with 18 percent support, compared to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's 15 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's 14 percent.
