Carl Higbie, a former Navy SEAL, served as a surrogate for the Trump campaign throughout 2016, and frequently had appearances on news shows. But his stint on the media circuit goes back further than that, according to audio first uncovered by CNN.

“Severe PTSD, where guys are bugging out and doing violent acts, is a trait of a weak mind,” Higbie said on Sound of Freedom, an internet talk-radio show, in February 2013.

In addition to leading the Corporation for National and Community Service — the federal government’s volunteer service organization — Higbie served two tours in Iraq and had an unsuccessful run for the Connecticut State House’s 4th District, according to the Connecticut Post.

Higbie later posted an apology on his verified Twitter account. “I’m not sorry that my words were published, I am sorry that I said them in 2013,” he wrote.

“Those words do not reflect who I am or what I stand for, I regret saying them.”

Other Twitter users noted that some of Higbies comments continued to occur after 2013.

In August 2014, Higbie made more comments concerning PTSD on another web broadcast.

“I’d say 75% of people with PTSD don’t actually have it, and they’re either milking something for a little extra money in disability or they’re just, they honestly are just lying,” Higbie said on the show Women Patriots. “Twenty-five percent legitimately do have problems … And I really think there are people that cannot deal with the stress of combat and some people can.”

Higbie’s unearthed comments did not solely focus on veterans, however.

In November 2016, Higbie cited the U.S. Supreme Court case Korematsu v. United States as “precedent” for the then-president-elect’s proposal to create a registry for immigrants from Muslim nations.

Speaking years earlier on Sound of Freedom in June 2013, Higbie commented, “I just don’t like Muslim people. People always rip me a new one for that. ‘Carl, you’re racist, you can’t, you’re sexist.’ I’m like Jesus Christ. I just don’t like Muslim people because their ideology sucks.

“Go back to your Muslim shithole and go crap in your hands and bang little boys on Thursday nights,” Higbie said.

Concerning illegal immigrants, Higbie told Sound of Freedom in February 2013, that legal citizens should be free to shoot illegals crossing the southern U.S. border.

“What’s so wrong with wanting to put up a fence and saying, ‘Hey, everybody with a gun, if you want to go shoot people coming across our border illegally, you can do it fo’ free,'” Higbie said.

In 2015, Higbie spoke about the birther movement, which questioned whether President Barack Obama’s birth certificate was authentic.

“This birth certificate thing,” Higbie said. “Sure, absolutely legitimate claim. You want to know if this — where was this guy born. That’s a legitimate question.” Higbie later stated that Obama’s birth certificate was “pixelated.”

In a statement, Samantha Jo Warfield, a spokesperson for CNCS, said Higbie would no longer serve as the chief of external affairs for the agency.

“Effective immediately, Carl Higbie has resigned as Chief of External Affairs at CNCS,” Warfield said.

A Marine KC-130 aircraft that took off from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, crashed Monday afternoon in Mississippi, killing 16 service members, a Marine Corps spokesman said on Tuesday.

“The identities of the service members whose lives were lost in this tragic accident are being withheld to allow time for their loved ones to be notified,” said Marine Maj. Clark Carpenter in a statement Tuesday morning. “While the details of the incident are being investigated, our focus remains on providing the necessary resources and support to the family and friends of these service members as they go through this extremely difficult time.”

The cause of Monday’s crash is unknown and the incident is under investigation, Carpenter said. The plane went down in LeFlore County. Federal Aviation Administration officials contacted the Marine Corps when it disappeared from radar.

Although Marine officials have not publicly identified which unit the KC-130 was from, a person familiar with the situation told Marine Corps Times that some of the Marines came from Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452 (VMGR-452) in New York. Several people have posted messages on Facebook indicating the same.

The reserve unit is based at Stewart Air National Guard Base, about 60 miles north of New York City. VMGR-452 flies KC-130s that are modified to provide aerial refueling capabilities.

The crash appears to be one of the deadliest Marine aviation mishaps in recent memory and comes at a time of intense concern about the readiness and condition of the Corp’s aviation fleet. Top Marine officials say the Corps has suffered a severe lack of experienced maintainers in recent years.

The FBI is also investigating the crash, official said.

Leflore County Emergency Management Agency Director Frank Randle told reporters at a late briefing that 16 bodies had been recovered after the KC-130 spiraled into the ground about 85 miles north of Jackson in the Mississippi Delta.

Andy Jones said he was working on his family’s catfish farm just before 4 p.m. when he heard a boom and looked up to see the plane corkscrewing downward with one engine smoking.

“You looked up and you saw the plane twirling around,” he said. “It was spinning down.”

Jones said the plane hit the ground behind some trees in a soybean field, and by the time he and other reached the crash site, fires were burning too intensely to approach the wreckage. The force of the crash nearly flattened the plane, Jones said.

“Beans are about waist-high, and there wasn’t much sticking out above the beans,” he said.

Jones said a man borrowed his cellphone to report to authorities that there were bodies across U.S. Highway 82, more than a mile from the crash site.

Greenwood Fire Chief Marcus Banks told the Greenwood Commonwealth that debris from the plane was scattered in a radius of about 5 miles.

Jones said firefighters tried to put out the fire at the main crash site but withdrew after an explosion forced them back. The fire produced towering plumes of black smoke visible for miles across the flat region and continued to burn after dusk, more than four hours after the crash.

Aerial pictures taken by WLBT-TV showed the skeleton of the plane burning strongly.

“It was one of the worst fires you can imagine,” Jones said. He said the fire was punctuated by the pops of small explosions.

Officials did not release information on what caused the crash or where the flight originated.

Marine Corps Times reporter Mackenzie Wolf and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Also today in history, in the U.S. and elsewhere:

1813: U.S. Army forces under Lt. Col. William Lewis drove the British and their Indian allies from Frenchtown, Michigan Territory, during the War of 1812. Unfortunately for the Americans, they’ll be back. Read the “Battle of the Thames” on HistoryNet.com. 

1915: Japan issued its Twenty-One Demands on the Republic of China in an effort to expand its power in East Asia.

1943: The first Warsaw Ghetto Uprising started. Read a history of the Ghetto Uprising on HistoryNet.com.