Sen. John McCain to speak at Naval Academy

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Sen. John McCain is returning to his alma mater to address the Brigade of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy on leadership and service to the nation.

The academy on Tuesday announced the senator’s scheduled appearance next week.

McCain, a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war, will speak Monday evening at the academy’s Alumni Hall on the school’s grounds, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the nation’s capital. The academy says the event is not open to the public.

The six-term Arizona Republican continued a long-running clash with President Donald Trump this week in which he alluded to the president in criticizing a Vietnam-era draft system that forced low-income Americans to serve while the wealthy could avoid war with a doctor’s note.

McCain had stopped short of labeling Trump a “draft dodger” for getting five draft deferments in that era. But the senator’s comments came with Trump already immersed in controversy over how he honors U.S. troop deaths, and underscored the remove between the billionaire president and the military system he now controls as commander in chief.

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