Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) on Friday slammed President Trump for reportedly disparaging fallen service members, invoking his brother’s capture and execution in the 1970s.
“My brother was captured in Laos in September of 1974 and executed by the North Vietnamese on December 14, 1974. F— you, Donald Trump,” Dean, a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, said in a tweet.
Dean’s brother, Charles Dean, and Australian Neil Sharman were captured by Laotian communist militants during a backpacking trip to the country in 1974 and executed later that year.
Both men were civilians at the time, but Charles Dean was classified by the U.S. government as a prisoner of war. His remains were repatriated in 2003.
Friday’s comments come as Trump faces backlash after The Atlantic reported that the president canceled a trip to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018 because he worried his hair would be disheveled by the rain.
The publication also reported that Trump asked senior staff during a meeting before the planned visit: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” in addition to referring to U.S. Marines who were killed at Belleau Wood during World War I as “suckers” because they died in battle.
Trump vehemently denied the report, calling it “fake news” and a “disgrace.”