Clinton: Trump's Comments on Gen. Allen 'Prove' He Should Not Be Commander-in-Chief
Trump called Allen "a failed general."
JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania -- Hillary Clinton on Saturday ripped into Donald Trump for his critique of retired four-star Gen. John Allen, saying it's unpresidential to "insult and deride our generals."
"Just yesterday, he went after retired Gen. John Allen who commanded our troops in Afghanistan. General Allen is a distinguished Marine, a hero and a patriot," the Democratic nominee said during a stop on her bus tour at a manufacturing business in Johnstown. "Donald Trump called him a failed general. Why? Because he does not believe Donald Trump should be commander in chief.
"Well I’d say that proves it," she continued. "Our commander in chief shouldn't insult and deride our generals, retired or otherwise. That really should go without saying, but I'm going to respond on behalf of General Allen to those kinds of insults."
On Friday, Trump unleashed on Allen, who delivered a scathing critique of the Republican nominee during remarks to the Democratic National Convention.
"Let me tell you, I think my kids have more star power, I really do. I think they do, than everybody I saw," Trump said of the DNC. "They had a general named John Allen. And he, I never met him, and he got up and he started talking about Trump, Trump, Trump. Never met him
"And you know who he is? He’s a failed, he was the general fighting ISIS. I would say he hasn’t done so well, right? Not so well."
During the DNC, Allen -- who commanded troops in Afghanistan -- said that with Clinton as president "our international relations would not be reduced to a business transaction" and "our armed forces will not become an instrument of torture."
Allen was tapped in September 2014 to be the Obama administration's point man for the campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. He resigned from the special-envoy post after 14 months amid reports that he clashed with President Obama and defense officials on how to defeat the terrorists.
Allen, a married father of two daughters, helps run a security program at the Brookings Institution, a research organization based in Washington, D.C., though he is currently on a leave of absence, according to his bio page.