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Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance<\/strong> has once again come out in defense of controversial remarks<\/a> made by his running mate, former president Donald Trump<\/strong>.<\/p>\n When speaking to the Milwaukee Police Association on Friday, Vance\u2014who spent four years in the Marines and served a tour in Iraq in 2005 as a combat correspondent\u2014attempted to soften<\/a> Trump\u2019s recent remarks diminishing the importance of the Congressional Medal of Honor. The medal, which has been around for more than 150 years, is the country\u2019s highest award for military valor in action. Trump equated that award with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.<\/p>\n During a campaign event Thursday at his golf club in New Jersey, Trump called out<\/a> to Miriam Adelson<\/strong> in the crowd.<\/p>\n Adelson, a prominent Republican donor<\/a> and casino magnate who has an estimated net worth<\/a> of $32.3 billion, was awarded<\/a> the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018 by Trump. During his failed 2020 bid for office, Adelson and her husband donated $90 million to Preserve America, a super PAC dedicated to electing Trump.<\/p>\n This time around, she\u2019s slated to give even more.<\/p>\n \u201cWe gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom,\u201d Trump began. \u201cIt\u2019s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version.\u201d He then goes on to say that freedom award is \u201cactually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that\u2019s soldiers, they\u2019re either in very bad shape because they\u2019ve been hit so many times by bullets\u2014or they\u2019re dead.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe gets it and she\u2019s a healthy beautiful woman,\u201d Trump continued, noting that the two awards are \u201crated equal.\u201d<\/p>\n The former president may have been using the moment to make nice with Adelson after he reportedly had an aide send her a slew of angry text messages last month, according<\/a> to The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a guy who loves our veterans and who honors our veterans,\u201d JD Vance said of Trump on Friday, claiming that he hadn\u2019t seen the full remarks. \u201cI don’t think him complimenting and saying a nice word about a person who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom is in any way denigrating those who received military honors,\u201d Vance continued. \u201cThey are two different awards. And I think the president was saying some nice things about a person that he liked and that is a totally reasonable thing to do.”<\/p>\n \u201cThe veteran community is very, very much behind Donald Trump,\u201d Vance said after mentioning a meeting he had with veterans in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Veterans across the nation have denounced Trump\u2019s recent remarks and critiqued Vance for endorsing his running mate\u2019s actions as a veteran himself.<\/p>\n Veterans of Foreign Wars\u2014a nonprofit serving active, guard, and reserve forces that has previously denounced<\/a> language that Trump has used when discussing veterans\u2014called<\/a> the former president\u2019s comments \u201casinine.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a candidate to serve as our military\u2019s commander-in-chief so brazenly dismisses the valor and reverence symbolized by the Medal of Honor and those who have earned it, I must question whether they would discharge their responsibilities to our men and women in uniform with the seriousness and discernment necessary for such a powerful position,\u201d the organization said in a statement, adding that Trump \u201cshould frankly already know better.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview<\/a> with MSNBC\u2019s Joy Reid<\/strong>, Iraq war veteran and co-founder<\/a> of the veterans advocacy group VoteVets.org Jon Soltz<\/strong> said of Vance: \u201cTotally respect his service, but he\u2019s a fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n