WHITE HOUSE
Trump continues counterattack on military
comments
His subordinates also try to chip away at The
Atlantic’s bombshell report by defending his overall record.
By NOLAN D.
MCCASKILL
09/06/2020
01:33 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/06/trump-military-atlantic-losers-suckers-409388
Top
administration officials on Sunday said they’ve never heard President Donald
Trump make disparaging remarks about veterans or the military, a subtle attempt
to dispute a report in The Atlantic. But the president’s top defender was the
president himself.
Jeffrey
Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, reported last week that Trump in
November 2018 told senior staff that the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near
Paris was “filled with losers” and that in a separate conversation he called
the 1,800 Marines who died at Belleau Wood “suckers” for getting killed.
Trump was
also furious when the White House lowered flags to half-staff following Arizona
Sen. John McCain’s death, Goldberg reported, and the president told senior
staff that they wouldn’t “support that loser’s funeral,” adding that the war
hero “was a f--king loser.” Goldberg reported that Trump made similar comments
about President George H.W. Bush, whose plane was shot down during World War
II.
The
Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, CNN and Fox News all confirmed
some elements of The Atlantic’s 1,500-word report, but Trump and his allies
have denied since Thursday that he made such comments.
On Sunday,
Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie credited Trump for what
he called a “renaissance” at the VA and grouped the allegations with past
stories citing unnamed officials that the president has dismissed as fake news
and hoaxes.
“I think
anonymous are the same people that brought you fake heart attacks, fake
strokes, Russian collusion,” Wilkie told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the
Union.”
“I see the
proof in the pudding,” he added. “The proof in the pudding is our military is
stronger, and our Veterans Affairs Department is in a place that it has never
been. This is the renaissance, and it’s all because of one man.”
Wilkie
downplayed Trump’s past comments toward McCain, whom the president in 2015 said
was not a war hero, as “politics” in the “heat of a campaign.” Trump, however,
was running for president while McCain was seeking reelection in the Senate.
John Kelly
and Joseph Dunford at 2018 ceremony at military ceremony in France.
White House
Chief of Staff John Kelly (left) and his wife Karen, along with Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford (right) with his wife Ellyn,
visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near the Belleau Wood battleground in
France on Nov. 10, 2018. President Donald Trump opted not to attend the
ceremony. | Francois Mori/AP Photo
And the VA
chief declined to get into a “he said, she said with the president and the
former chief of staff” when asked whether he agreed with Trump’s assessment
that Gen. John Kelly didn’t do a good job in that position. Trump told
reporters at the White House on Friday that Kelly “had no temperament,”
“petered out,” “got eaten alive” and “was unable to handle the pressure of his
job.”
“I think
this president has enormous respect for the military and for the generals,”
Mnuchin said. “This president respects and supports the U.S. military.”
Former
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel described Trump’s reported comments as “beneath
the dignity of any commander in chief,” if true. Hagel, a veteran of the
Vietnam War, encouraged the anonymous sources to come forward if they feel so
strongly. But he also suggested that Trump’s own words and actions make the
story believable, including his comments about McCain, former Defense Secretary
Jim Mattis, former national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Kelly, who also
led the Department of Homeland Security before joining and leaving the White
House.
“He’s on
the record with saying things himself over the past few years,” Hagel told
Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.” “And that makes the credibility of this
article and those anonymous comments more and more credible.”
Trump was
in France in November 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World
War I, but opted to cancel a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, citing
forecasts of bad weather. In place of Trump, Kelly and Gen. Joseph Dunford,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, attended the ceremony. In addition,
other world leaders went on with their scheduled events, including French
President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trump’s
defense of himself Sunday was to go on the attack. The president accused news
organizations of partnering with the Democratic Party on “a massive
Disinformation Campaign” and urged his 85 million Twitter followers to let the
magazine’s owner “know how you feel!!!”
“The
Democrats, together with the corrupt Fake News Media, have launched a massive
Disinformation Campaign the likes of which has never been seen before,” Trump
tweeted Sunday morning. “They will say anything, like their recent lies about
me and the Military, and hope that it sticks... But #MAGA gets it!”
Nearly
three hours earlier, before 7 a.m., the president amplified a tweet from
Charlie Kirk, head of Turning Point USA, who said Laurene Powell Jobs has
donated at least $500,000 to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s
campaign and noted that she owns a majority stake in the news magazine.
“Steve Jobs
would not be happy that his wife is wasting money he left her on a failing
Radical Left Magazine that is run by a con man (Goldberg) and spews FAKE NEWS
& HATE,” Trump said. “Call her, write her, let her know how you feel!!!”
Speaking in
defense of his article, Goldberg told CNN’s Brian Stelter on “Reliable Sources”
that he felt comfortable publishing the story because he spoke to multiple
people “with firsthand knowledge of the president’s views and comments.”
“That’s the
only reason to publish anything,” he said. “And I felt it was important to
publish because, in my experience and in our collective experience, I don’t
think we’ve had a president who has contempt for American soldiers, wounded
veterans, people who’ve been killed in action. So it’s incredibly novel. It’s
one of these things that’s in the category of shocking yet not surprising.”
Goldberg
said he also expects more confirmation, reporting and new nuggets of
information to emerge “in the coming days and weeks.”
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