It’s no secret that the mainstream media is biased against President Trump, but this is just getting ridiculous.
The latest example of the media’s increasingly unhinged anti-Trump bias is the Atlantic’s recent article claiming — contrary to both reason and experience — that the president disparaged service members and wounded veterans. This preposterous claim, which the president himself has vehemently and repeatedly refuted, should never have made it to publication — not one “source” is even willing to be identified with a vague description like “senior official,” much less reveal their name.
The bottom line here is that Trump’s devotion to America’s military members has been so strong, the only way one can dispute that is by outright lying with fake sources. As the highest-ranking combat veteran ever elected to Congress, I have worked with the commander-in-chief on many issues concerning veterans in this country and have seen firsthand his heartfelt commitment to the men and women protecting our nation, as well as their families.
He has demonstrated this commitment repeatedly in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic that has rocked our communities. The Trump administration’s veterans’ suicide prevention program was established in June to protect veterans struggling with mental health issues and isolation under state and local lockdown orders. Even before the pandemic, Trump had launched several new initiatives to help veterans and their families, and the fiscal year 2021 budget that he submitted to Congress in February allocates about 30% more funding for suicide prevention.
The federal CARES Act, moreover, designated $300 million in emergency aid for homeless and low-income veterans and their families to ensure that no veteran is prevented from receiving VA housing assistance. The measure protects against foreclosures, evictions, and adverse credit reporting for veterans who are unable to pay their bills due to the pandemic, removing a major source of stress for struggling veterans.
Mental health issues are not new, however. We know that around 20 veterans and service members die by suicide each day. Long before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration established a hotline for veterans in crisis situations, which had already responded to hundreds of thousands of calls before the pandemic began, and has since seen a major spike in calls.
Trump’s commitment to veterans is reflected in his Opening Up America Again guidelines, which are designed to help state and local officials responsibly loosen up the lockdown restrictions that have put additional emotional, psychological, and professional burdens on so many of the men and women who have served our nation in uniform. Just this past month, Trump signed two more veteran-supporting bills, including one to aid veterans with substance abuse or other mental health issues who are caught up in the legal system. The Trump administration is backing additional legislation, based on policy from the IMPROVE Act that I introduced, which would direct VA grants to community partners so that we can aid and reach the many veterans who die by suicide but are outside the VA system of care. This bill, S.785, passed the Senate unanimously but is sitting on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk without action.
What has Joe Biden done for our men and women in uniform? Not much, other than try to get some of their honor to rub off on himself by telling an apparently fabricated story about visiting troops in Afghanistan in order to pin a Silver Star on a heroic Navy captain while he was serving as vice president. Multiple sources — who, unlike the recent Atlantic story’s sources, were willing to go on record — said the story was filled with inaccuracies and falsehoods. Despite giving his “word as a Biden” that the tale was “the God’s truth,” even the Washington Post reported that “almost every detail in the story appears to be incorrect.”
Considering everything Trump has done and continues to do for the veteran community, it’s no surprise that he is widely beloved by the nation’s veterans. The mainstream media are trying to do whatever they can to damage that reputation before November, but lies like those put out by the Atlantic are simply too outlandish to believe.
John Warren “Jack” Bergman is a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant general and the U.S. representative for Michigan’s 1st Congressional District. He served as commanding general of Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North.
