President Trump refuses to issue an apology to service members and veterans, insisting he never said anything negative about fallen U.S. soldiers as portrayed in an article in the Atlantic that has created a political firestorm two months away from Election Day.
The report by the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, published Thursday and reliant on anonymous sources, said Trump referred to fallen soldiers as “losers” and dead Marines as “suckers” during an overseas trip in 2018. The report also claimed that the president refused to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France while saying it was a place “filled with losers” and that he didn’t want his hair to be ruined by rain. In addition, the report said Trump asked staff planning for a military parade to keep wounded veterans away.
“It’s a fake story written by a magazine that was probably not going to be around much longer, but it was a totally fake story, and that was confirmed by many people who were actually there,” Trump told reporters on Friday when asked if he needed to apologize to service members and veterans. “It was a terrible thing that somebody could say the kind of things, especially to me.”
Trump’s denial is backed up by a wave of current and former Trump administration officials, as well as journalists and pundits who are skeptical of the anonymous sourcing and are calling for Goldberg’s sources to come forward.
“Not a soul brave enough to put their name on any of these accusations,” White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere tweeted. “That’s because they are false. Just another anonymously sourced story meant to tear down a Commander-in-Chief who loves our military and has delivered on the promises he’s made. What a disgrace!”
Trump also touted his record on the military, talking about the trillion-dollar investments and strengthening Veterans Choice, which lets veterans get medical care outside of the Veterans Affairs health system.
“Now, there’s nobody that considers the military and especially people that have given their lives in the military,” Trump said. “To me, they’re heroes. It’s even hard to believe how they could do that. I say that. It’s so — the level of bravery. And to me, they are absolute heroes.”
Goldberg disputed Trump’s comments dismissing his reporting, saying he has “very, very good sources” and that he was “completely confident” Trump said what he quoted him saying.
“It is not fake. It is real,” Goldberg told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. “This story is extensively sourced and entirely accurate. That’s all I can say. This is not the first time, of course — certainly not the first time today that the president has cast aspersions on journalism that doesn’t reflect well on him. His reaction is completely predictable.”
Earlier in the morning, Goldberg told CNN that his sources “don’t want to be inundated with angry tweets and all the rest.”
Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, called the assertions in Goldberg’s report “disgusting” during an appearance Friday in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden also made a reference to his late son Beau Biden, who joined the Delaware National Guard after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, served in Iraq (being awarded a Bronze Star for his service), served as attorney general of Delaware, and in 2015 died after battling brain cancer.
“Let me be real clear, when my son was an assistant U.S. attorney and he volunteered to go to Kosovo while the war was going on as a civilian, he wasn’t a sucker,” Biden said. “When my son volunteered and joined the United States military as the attorney general and went to Iraq for a year, won the Bronze Star and other commendations, he wasn’t a sucker. The servicemen and women he served with, particularly those who did not come home, were not losers. If these statements are true, the president should humbly apologize to every Gold Star mother and father and every Blue Star family that he’s denigrated and insulted.”
