John Kerry, who knows something about having his warrecord attacked, savages Donald Trump

AP

Then-Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. listens at left as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speak during a newsconference on on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, to urge Senate approval of aninternational agreement for protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities.

Secretary of State John Kerry came to the defense late Saturday night of Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), whose combat record had come under fire earlier in the day byhttp://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata&v=iDpgwJ6UJX8 Republican presidentialcandidate Donald Trump.

Kerry served in the US Senate with McCain for nearly 30 years before replacing Hillary Clinton assecretary of state near the start of President Barack Obama's second term.

"I have known John McCain for more than 30 years. We've had our share of disagreements and stilldo today. But one thing I know is beyond debate is that John McCain is a hero, a man of grit and gutsand character personified," Kerry said in the statement.

"He served and bled and endured unspeakable acts of torture. His captors broke his bones, but theycouldn't break his spirit, which is why he refused early release when he had the chance. That'sheroism, pure and simple, and it is unimpeachable."

Kerry went on to blast Trump without mentioning his name.

"If anyone doesn't know that John McCain is a war hero, it only proves they know nothing about warand even less about heroism," Kerry said.

Earlier in the day during a forum in Iowa, the real-estate magnate Trump had questioned McCain'sstatus as a "war hero." Trump, who has been in a war of words with McCain for much of the pastweek over his views on immigration, disparaged McCain for being "captured" during the VietnamWar.

"He's not a war hero," Trump said. "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people thatweren't captured."

"Perhaps he's a war hero, but right now, he's said bad things about a lot of people," Trump lateradded.

REUTERS/Nancy Wiechec

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a campaign event in Phoenix, ArizonaJuly 11, 2015.

McCain's plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. He spent five years in a prisoner-of-warcamp, where he was tortured. He has been an outspoken advocate for fair treatment of prisoners ofwar, breaking with many of his Republican colleagues to close the detention facility at GuantanamoBay and clashing with the Bush administration over its use of "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Republican rivals quickly moved to condemn Trump's remarks, as many have for his assertion thatthe Mexican government has sent "rapists" and drug runners across the border to the United States.McCain took issue with a speech Trump gave last week in Phoenix, where McCain said Trump hadfired up "the crazies" in the Republican Party.

For his part, Trump has said he doesn't plan to apologize, even saying that McCain should offer anapology to those he https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDpgwJ6UJX8 called "crazies."

Kerry has also endured a highly public scrutiny of his war record. During the 2004 presidentialelection, when the Democratic nominee Kerry ran against incumbent Republican president GeorgeW. Bush, a group known as the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" disparaged Kerry's service andattacked the awarding of some combat medals to Kerry.

The group's allegations were widely discredited, but not before they became a key theme of the2004 campaign.

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