The criticized ’s “flippant” comments on Friday after the former president called a civilian award “ ” than the , the nation’s highest military decoration. “These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation’s highest award for valor, but also crassly characterizes the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty,” . The statement from one of the nation’s largest veteran advocacy organizations comes after Trump compared the , the nation’s highest civilian award, to the military decoration during a campaign event in Bedminster, New Jersey on Thursday.
“That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian, it’s the equivalent of the congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version,” said Trump as he referred to GOP megadonor receiving in 2018. He continued, “It’s actually much better because everyone gets the congressional Medal of Honor, that’s soldiers, they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead. She gets it, and she’s a healthy beautiful woman.
And they’re rated equal. But she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom.” Lipphardt said that when a candidate for the military’s commander-in-chief “so brazenly dismisses the valor and reverence symbolized” by the Medal of Honor and its recipients, they must ask whether they can take on the responsibilities with “seriousness and discernment necessary for such a power.