Evan Vucci / AP
Donald Trump on Monday suggested to a room full of veterans that soldiers who return from war suffering from PTSD are not "strong" and "can't handle it."
The GOP presidential candidate's statement came during a Q&A at the Retired American Warriors Pac. Some of the questions were about the suicide epidemic in the military and criticism of the Veterans Administration (VA) for falling short on providing veterans with the mental health treatment they need.
After saying there are around 22 veteran suicides a day, Trump explained to the room of veterans what PTSD was.
“When people come back from war and combat and they see maybe what the people in this room have seen many times over, and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it," Trump said.
There was a silence in the room after his statement, and people on social media were quick to express anger toward his comments.
In response to an earlier question about the VA, Trump said that he was thinking up policies that would help fill in the gaps that the VA was leaving in terms of mental health coverage. He said his plan is to enable the government to pay for the health care of veterans, not just at VA clinics, but at any public or private hospital.
The plan is mostly needed, Trump said, because of lines at the VA clinics.
"People are killing themselves what are waiting on line because they have days and days before what could be a simple procedure, a simple prescription, and the wait is so long, they can't take it," Trump said.
Trump obtained four deferments from the draft into the Vietnam war before being medically disqualified from serving in the military in 1968.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2cXUVpB
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