Bill Rausch, the executive director of the veterans group Got Your 6, which works to promote accurate portrayals of veterans in the media, is outraged by one of Donald Trump's veterans' issues advisors, Al Baldasaro, suggesting Hillary Clinton should be shot for her history of scandals. During an interview with the "Jeff Kuhner Show," Baldasaro condemned the former secretary of state for lying to the families of Benghazi, then said the following:
“This whole thing disgusts me, Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.”
Rausch rejected Baldasaro’s remarks, calling it “completely inappropriate.”
“I’m a combat veteran – you don’t say that," he said. "You don’t put people in front of firing squads and shoot them. It goes against the ethos of every single person who’s raised their right hand and swore to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. He should know better.”
These remarks are “especially inappropriate,” Rausch said, in light of the recent deadly shootings of police in Dallas and Baton Rouge, where two of the shooters were veterans. Rausch said the Trump campaign needs to denounce Baldasaro's words.
“That’s damaging us as a community,” Rausch said. “It’s got to be condemned. We’re calling on them to condemn it immediately. There’s just no place for this.”
Not only should the Trump camp roundly denounce his remarks, but Rausch insisted they should “make sure he no longer speaks on behalf of the campaign.” He should not be associated with it “whatsoever.”
“If we made progress this week, it sets us back,” Rausch said.
Day One of the RNC was termed “Make America Safe Again” and featured several keynote speakers who were either veterans or family members of veterans. “They set the bar high” for the DNC convention to reach in Philadelphia next week, Rausch noted.
On Tuesday, they weren’t able to dig deeper into the veterans’ policies mentioned on Monday because the news was dominated by the reports of plagiarism in Melania Trump’s speech. Now, they are having to deal with Baldasaro’s unfortunate comments.
It “damages the campaign’s effort,” Rausch said. There have been some really great members of the Trump campaign he’s been working with who he “can’t imagine they would even condone this.”
The Trump campaign has yet to respond to Got Your 6’s requests for comment.
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