Retired Army general says Trump skipped veterans event in France to 'eat cheeseburgers' and 'watch TV'

General Barry McCaffrey visited Brian Williams’ MSNBC studio Tuesday evening and was asked to opine on President Donald Trump’s curious absence from a ceremony honoring American soldiers buried at a French cemetery on Saturday.

McCaffrey is a thrice Purple Heart honored war hero who served on President Bill Clinton’s cabinet as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.  He is also a harsh critic of President Trump having concluded that he “is a serious threat to US national security” and seeing that Trump “is for some unknown reason under the sway of Mr. Putin.”

McCaffrey did not hold back on his criticism of Trump during this appearance saying that he thinks “Europeans are aghast at almost everything we’re doing.”

He then put in stark relief just how important World War I is in the history of civilization, saying it “is the most consequential war in our history. It changed everything, and we took 300,000 casualties, essentially in a six-month campaign. We put 2 million soldiers and Marines into Europe. More than the French army. We had 2 million more coming. Their sacrifice saved civilization in Europe.”

But to the point of why Trump appeared to blow off the ceremony? McCaffrey said “I think he just wanted to stay out of the rain, eat cheeseburgers, watch TV and tweet angry denunciations of his many enemies. I think that’s what was happening. It was insulting. I don’t think it has any impact on the morale of the armed forces. They basically understand the legal obligations of the commander in chief. They fight for each other. Their units, their service pride. I don’t think there’s any downside to the armed forces but it’s astonishing behavior.”