You'll Never Guess Who Just Gave John McCain the Tribute That Trump Won't

Family, I am dying: perhaps the least likely person in the ENTIRE WORLD just offered his tribute to the late Senator John McCain that President Drumpf WON’T—McCain’s jailer when he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

I swear this is real. As was first flagged by the Daily Beast, the English-language outlet Việt Nam News caught up with Col. Trần Trọng Duyệt, the man who was in charge of the North Vietnamese prison camp where McCain was held for more than five years after his plane was shot down. Duyệt spoke warmly of the man he once held captive as his officers repeatedly broke the future senator’s bones.

Per the outlet, the colonel was quoted as saying:

I had a lot of time meeting him when he was kept in the prison.
At that time I liked him personally for his toughness and strong stance. Later on, when he became a US Senator, he and Senator John Kerry greatly contributed to promote Việt Nam-US relations so I was very fond of him.
When I learnt about his death early this morning, I feel very sad. I would like to send condolences to his family. I think it’s the same feeling for all Vietnamese people as he has greatly contributed to the development of Việt Nam – US relations.

I really don’t care much about Trump’s stubborn refusal to offer even a tiny nod of respect to mark McCain’s passing—something that is making people in the Beltway, where the “maverick” cast a long shadow, red and mad—but the fact that the man who oversaw McCain being held in solitary confinement and tortured for YEARS beat the president to the punch is really, truly something for the ages. It also led to this objectively bonkers tweet, which inspired the post you are reading:

Incredible.

 
Join the discussion...