John McCain: Trump owes apology to families of POWs

Senator John McCain urged Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to apologise to US military families for saying prisoners of war are not heroes in his first direct response to remarks by Trump.

Trump drew a barrage of criticism over the weekend after telling a Republican forum he did not think McCain, a US navy fighter pilot imprisoned for more than five years in Hanoi after being shot down, was a hero because he was captured.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump told religious conservatives in Iowa. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”