Former Texas governor Rick Perry doubled down on his condemnation of Donald Trump’s attack on John McCain, demanding an immediate apology.
Trump, however, said only that McCain was “yet another all talk, no action politician who spends too much time on television”.
Hours after Trump said McCain was “not a war hero” on stage at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Perry went on the same stage and tore into Trump for his remarks.
McCain’s plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 and he spent five and a half years in captivity, subject to repeated torture.
Perry said: “I was highly offended about what Donald Trump said about [McCain’s] years of sacrifice in a dirty, dingy, terrible prison in North Vietnam. Donald Trump owes every American veteran and, in particular, John McCain an apology.”
In response to a follow-up question from moderator Frank Luntz, the former Texas governor said that if Trump did not apologize it would disqualify him from being a legitimate candidate as well as commander-in-chief.
Perry’s comments received polite applause from the audience of thousands of Iowa social conservatives.
In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Trump tried to pivot on his comments about McCain and distance himself from criticism of the Arizona senator’s service. Trump said: “I am not a fan [of] John McCain because he has done so little for our veterans and he should know better than anybody what the veterans need, especially in regards to the VA [Veterans Affairs department].
“He is yet another all talk, no action politician who spends too much time on television and not enough time doing his job and helping the vets.”
Earlier on Saturday, Perry’s campaign had issued a statement stating Trump’s comments represented “ a new low in American politics” and urging the former Celebrity Apprentice host to “immediately withdraw from the race for president”.
In recent days, Perry has engaged war of words with Trump. The former Texas governor has condemned Trump’s comments on immigration and said the billionaire’s ideology was “a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense”.
In return, Trump tweeted that Perry “should be forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to enter the GOP debate”.
Perry is running for president for a second time, after his 2012 campaign was torpedoed by a debate gaffe, in which he forgot the name of a third government department he was proposing to abolish.
