Vice President Harris’s campaign knocked former President Trump for his assertion that a civilian honor was better than the highest military honor, arguing that he knows nothing about service.
Trump, at his Thursday press conference in New Jersey, said the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a civilian award, is “the equivalent of the congressional Medal of Honor,” adding that the civilian version is “actually much better.”
“Everyone [who] gets the congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead,” the former president added.
Harris spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement that voters “owe it to our service members” to not elect Trump in November.
“Donald Trump knows nothing about service to anyone or anything but himself. For him to insult Medal of Honor recipients, just as he has previously attacked Gold Star families, mocked prisoners of war, and referred to those who lost their lives in service to our country as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers,’ should remind all Americans that we owe it to our service members, our country, and our future to make sure Donald Trump is never our nation’s commander in chief again,” she said.
The Biden campaign, and now Harris campaign, hit Trump previously for his rhetoric on veterans, highlighting that Trump in 2018 reportedly referred to American veterans buried in France as “losers” and “suckers.” Trump has denied making the “suckers” remark, though it was later confirmed by his former chief of staff John Kelly.
Military service has become more of a hot button topic in the presidential campaign, after Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) attacked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) over his military record. Walz, who served in the Army National Guard, this week said no one’s record should be denigrated after Vance, a Marine veteran, suggested that Walz has been insincere about his military background.