Donald Trump’s PTSD comments are ‘ignorant’ and ‘harmful,’ Hillary Clinton says

Veterans, including some in San Diego, are criticizing Donald Trump while others come to his defense for remarks he made to a veterans group on the sensitive subject of PTSD and suicides among those with combat-related injuries.

On Monday, the Republican presidential candidate addressed the Retired American Warriors PAC in Herndon, Virginia, where Marine Staff Sgt. Chad Robichaux asked whether Trump would support funding holistic approaches to helping veterans treat PTSD and other injuries sustained in combat.

Trump gave a 285-word answer but the crux of his remarks was focused on these four lines:

When you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks 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. And they see horror stories. They see events that you couldn’t see in a movie, nobody would believe it.

Several news organizations ran headlines seizing on Trump’s “can’t handle it” quote, and on social media people alternately criticized Trump for his remarks or news outlets for omitting some context.

Joe Biden got into the fray with this commentary:

Hillary Clinton also used the opportunity to criticize Trump’s comments as “ignorant and harmful”.