Families of Navajo Code Talkers decry Trump’s political jab

By: The Associated Press

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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Families of Navajo war veterans say they are dumbfounded that President Donald Trump took a political jab at a U.S. senator at an event honoring Navajo Code Talkers.

Trump praised the Code Talkers at the White House on Monday. He also turned to a nickname he has often deployed for Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts: Pocahontas.

Relatives of the Code Talkers say the comment was inappropriate and distracted from the men’s work that helped the U.S. win World War II.

Pocahontas is a well-known historical figure who bridged her own Pamunkey Tribe in present-day Virginia with the British in the 1600s.

The largest organization representing American Indians says Trump wrongly turned the name into a derogatory term.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the president didn’t intend it as a racial slur.

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