‘Lying draft dodger’: Republican veterans release attack ad against Trump
‘I would not consider myself liberal but Biden is the only choice’
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Your support makes all the difference.Republican veterans who are voting against Donald Trump in November’s election have released a scathing new attack ad against the president.
The advert, released by Republican Voters Against Trump, complies clips from a number of US veterans detailing why they refuse to vote for Mr Trump.
The group is a political initiative that brings together “Republicans, former Republicans, conservatives, and former Trump voters who can’t support Trump this fall”.
The advert opens with veterans detailing their previous roles in the US military and their political beliefs, saying they are “life long Republicans”.
“At least I was until Donald Trump came into the picture,” says Mark, an Air Force veteran from Virginia.
The veterans then berate the president, saying “he does not care about you, he does not care about this country” or the “constitution”.
They make reference to Mr Trump’s deferments from military service during the Vietnam war, calling him a “coward” and a “lying draft dodger”.
Mr Trump has previously received scrutiny over his deferral from the Vietnam War, with claims he suffered bone spurs at the time never having been held up by verifiable facts or evidence.
One speaker also hits out at claims over alleged Russian bounties on US troops in Afghanistan, for which Mr Trump has drawn intense scrutiny.
“My friends are still out there and they’re still being targeted by the Russian federation with paid bounties,” says Will, an Army veteran from Texas.
Mr Trump and the White House have continually denied that the president was briefed on the bounty intelligence.
Concluding the video, the veterans endorse Joe Biden for president in the 2020 election, saying that “country” comes “above party”.
“I would not consider myself liberal but Biden is the only choice,” one says.
Erin Perrine, Director of Press Communications for the Trump campaign, told The Independent that the video is “the swamp – yet again – trying to take down the duly elected President of the United States”.
“President Trump is the leader of a united Republican Party where he has earned 94 per cent of Republican votes during the primaries – something any former president of any party could only dream of,” she said.
Other political groups against Trump have released similar adverts criticising the his alleged briefing of the bounties.
VoteVets published the video to Twitter on 3 July, comparing the president to Benedict Arnold, who infamously defected from the US Continental Army to the British side in the Revolutionary War.
The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump republican Political Action Committee that has been campaigning against the president in the run-up to the election also published a video slamming the president’s relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin.
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