The editor-in-chief of the Atlantic explained why he used anonymous sources in a new report published on Thursday that said President Trump made disparaging comments about fallen and wounded soldiers during a trip overseas in 2018.
During a Friday morning interview on CNN, Jeffrey Goldberg, who wrote the story, defended using four anonymous sources with “firsthand knowledge” who claimed that Trump called dead soldiers “losers” and dead Marines “suckers.” The report has been denied by several current and former members of the administration who were on the trip during which the president allegedly made the remarks.
“They don’t want to be inundated with angry tweets and all the rest. And we push hard, and that’s why you have to sort of do this reporting with even more belt-and-suspenders approach. You know, dotted i’s and crossed t’s and find multiple sources for it,” he explained on New Day.
“Each time, this is a judgment call, right? Does the public’s interest in needing this information outweigh the ambiguities or the difficulties of anonymous sourcing? Goldberg asked. “And in this case, I decided that I felt I knew this information well enough from high enough sources and multiple sources that I thought we should put it out.”
As pressure mounts for his sources to come forward and identify themselves, Goldberg also noted that he hopes journalists will be able to get people on the record to confirm his report, which claims that the president referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who were killed in the Battle of Belleau Wood during World War I as “suckers” for losing their lives. The report also said Trump told staff planning for a military parade to keep wounded veterans out of it because spectators might be made to feel uncomfortable by the presence of amputees, saying, “Nobody wants to see that.”
Current and former administration officials, including Sarah Sanders, Hogan Gidley, Dan Scavino, and Jordan Karem, were among those who denied the claims publicly. Trump also angrily rejected the report.
“To think that I would make statements negative to our military when nobody has done what I’ve done, with the budgets and the military budget. We’re getting pay raises for the military. It is a disgraceful situation, by a magazine that is a terrible magazine, I don’t read it,” he said.
The president also tweeted criticism about the Atlantic on Friday, saying the magazine is “dying” and “so they make up a fake story in order to gain some relevance.”
