Donald Trump Under Fire For Calling Democrat Conor Lamb, A Marine Veteran, An ‘American Fraud’ On Memorial Day
Donald Trump is facing sharp criticism after taking to Twitter to call Democratic Congressman Conor Lamb — a Marine Corps veteran and reservist — an “American fraud” on Memorial Day, as reported by The Daily Beast. The tweet has since been deleted and reposted to correct the spelling of the congressman’s name.
Trump’s newly updated tweet came in response to a post from Lamb’s Republican opponent, Sean Parnell, describing his time serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, where he was wounded in 2006. Parnell wrote that he retired from the military four years later with “next to nothing” but was now happy that he reached a status where he was getting personal shout-outs from Trump on Twitter.
Trump quoted Parnell’s tweet, calling him an “American hero” and saying that Lamb — whose name he originally misspelled as Connor Lamm — was proven to be “an American fraud” by voting to make Nancy Pelosi the House speaker after saying he would not vote for her.
As many pointed out, Lamb did not vote in support of Pelosi. The vote drew plenty of attention at the time as Pelosi was facing a challenge from some of the more center-leaning members of her party.
“I believe we need new leadership to put the partisan gridlock behind us, and I promised my constituents I would vote for new leadership,” Lamb said in a press release at the time, via Politics PA.
“That’s what I did today, and what I’ll do on the floor.”
Sean Parnell is an American Hero. Conor Lamb has proven to be an American fraud, and a puppet for Crazy Nancy Pelosi. He said he would NOT vote for her for Speaker, and did. Will kill 2A. Voted to impeach (on nothing). A TOTAL & COMPLETE Sean Parnell Endorsement! https://t.co/v1OnY0MI8m
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
Trump’s tweet was met with swift criticism, with many calling it out of bounds for him to launch such a personal attack on a former U.S. service member and sitting congressman.
“Only a traitor would post this,” replied Democratic strategist and fundraiser Scott Dworkin.
Others criticized Trump for his attack on a member of the military after he himself had not served, receiving controversial deferments to avoid having to serve in the Vietnam War.
“Conor Lamb was an ‘active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2009-2013 and continues to serve as a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.'” another wrote.
“But the Commander-in-Chief, who never served a day in the military, sees fit to slander him on Memorial Day.”
This comes after a weekend of sharp, often personal attacks from Trump on perceived enemies and political opponents. On Sunday, he retweeted someone who had called Hillary Clinton a “skank” and made fat jokes aimed at former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
Trump himself faced sharp criticism over the weekend for going golfing — his first golf trip since national lockdown measures went in place in March — at a time when the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus approached 100,000.
