Pete Buttigieg Claims President Trump Faked a Disability To Dodge Serving in Vietnam
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg accused President Donald Trump on Thursday of “exploiting the system” by fabricating a disability to bypass the draft and avoid military service.
“I have a pretty dim view of [Trump’s] decision to use his privileged status to fake a disability in order to avoid serving in Vietnam,” Buttigieg said during an interview for Washington Post Live.
Robert Costa: “Do you think [Trump] should have served in Vietnam?”
Pete Buttigieg: “Well, I have a pretty dim view of his decision to use his privileged status to fake a disability in order to avoid serving in Vietnam.”
Via WaPo Live pic.twitter.com/5UT9m8TA89— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 23, 2019
When pressed harder about whether he believes Trump actually faked a disability, the South Bend mayor replied, “Do you believe he has a disability?”
“I don’t mean to trivialize disability but I think that’s exactly what he did.”
Trump was diagnosed with bone spurs in 1968, which allowed him to receive a medical exemption for the Vietnam War draft, reported The New York Times.
He received four prior education deferments while he was studying at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Manipulating the ability to get a diagnosis — I mean, if he were a conscientious objector, I’d admire that,” Buttigieg said.
“But this is somebody who it’s fairly obvious to most of us took advantage of that fact that he was the child of a multimillionaire, in order to pretend to be disabled so that somebody could go to war in his place.
“I know that that drudges up old wounds from a complicated time during a complicated war,” he said.
“I’m also old enough to remember when Conservatives talked about character.”
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