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A common thread runs through the lives of McCain, Powell and Mueller. All three were military veterans. All three saw combat. And all three received Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts for their service and injuries in Vietnam " the place that Trump avoided with a physician's note attesting to his ostensibly debilitating bone spurs.

Is Trump shamed by their examples? He's surely baffled by their choices. Trump wouldn't risk a paper cut unless there was multi-million-dollar payoff on the far side of the nick. And he has privately referred to Americans killed in wars as "suckers" for having put their lives on the line, according to reports " which he has called "fake news" " by several news organizations.

It's as if he needs desperately to feel superior to those soldiers, to cast their strength as weakness, their courage as folly, lest his own cowardice be exposed. And so he disparaged McCain, Powell and Mueller, talking smack about them even (especially?) when they could no longer talk back.