GOP candidate questions ‘cognitive thought process’ of veterans in Dem Party

A Republican running for the Senate in Wisconsin on Wednesday questioned the “cognitive thought process” of veterans who align with the Democratic Party.

Kevin Nicholson, himself a Marine Corps veteran, suggested during a radio interview on the “Steve Scaffidi Show” on Wisconsin’s WTMJ that the mere act of joining the military is fundamentally conservative.

“And just because some people that don’t call themselves conservatives and don’t always act conservative do something conservative — like, let’s talk about John Kerry — and signed up to serve this country, that doesn’t mean that that’s not a conservative thing to fundamentally protect and defend the Constitution,” he said in the interview, highlighted by CNN.

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Nicholson argued that voting for Democratic candidates, on the other hand, makes little sense for veterans, because the party had “rejected the Constitution.”

“I’ll tell you, the Democrat Party has wholesale rejected the Constitution and the values that it was founded upon,” he said.

“So I’ll tell you what: Those veterans that are out there in the Democrat Party, I question their cognitive thought process because the bottom line is, they’re signing up to defend the Constitution that their party is continually dragging through the mud.”

Nicholson is among a handful of Republicans seeking the party’s nomination to challenge Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in November. 

In an email to CNN, Nicholson campaign spokesman Brandon Moody said the candidate was expressing the belief that the Democratic Party has acted disrespectfully toward veterans. 

“Kevin made clear that all members of the military — regardless of their political party — sign up to defend and protect the Constitution and its principles,” Moody told the outlet. “But Kevin also believes that the Democrat Party has become unmoored from the Constitution and has lost its way. Kevin left the Democrat Party years ago and became a conservative, in part, because liberal Democrats and the policies they promote have shown overt disrespect to our veterans.”