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Current and former members of the military, elected officials, and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reacted with outrage and sadness when former members of the Donald Trump administration confirmed key details of an explosive report in which Trump addressed the soldiers. fallen as “fools”. “And” losers. “
Atlantic magazine ran a story Thursday based on four sources close to the president who said Trump canceled a visit to pay his respects at an American military cemetery outside Paris in 2018 because he thought the dead soldiers were “losers” and ” fools “and he didn’t want the rain to ruin his hair.
Both of them Elizabeth neumann, former undersecretary for counterterrorism in the Department of Homeland Security, and Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff for that department, said the account was true and claimed that Trump’s low opinion of soldiers killed and wounded in combat was well known within the administration.
Trump’s defenders included the secretary of state and the president himself, who dismissed the report as a bogus attack aimed at damaging his chance for re-election. The Atlantic report was “totally false,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday.
When asked if he should apologize for his comments about the fallen service members, Trump said: “No, it’s a false story.”
But a visibly angry Biden called the alleged comments “disgusting” and said Trump “was not fit to be commander in chief.”
“When my son volunteered and joined the United States Army, and went to Iraq for a year, he won the Bronze Star and other accolades, he was no fool,” Biden said, raising his voice, in remarks. in Wilmington, Delaware. Her son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, was sent to Iraq in 2008.
“If these statements are true, the President should humbly apologize to every Gold Star mother and father and to every Blue Star family,” Biden said. Who the hell does he think he is?
“I’m always being warned not to lose my temper,” Biden said. “This may be the closest I come in this campaign. It is just one indicator of how deeply the President and I disagree on the role of the President of the United States of America. “
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Purple Heart recipient who lost both legs during a combat mission in Iraq, accused Trump of trying to “politicize and pervert our military to pet his own ego” in a campaign-organized press call. of Biden.
“This is a man who spends every day redefining the concept of narcissism; a man who has led a life of privilege, with everything delivered on a silver platter, ”Duckworth said. “Of course, he thinks of war selfishly. He sees it as a transactional cost, rather than in human lives and spilled American blood, because that is how he has seen his entire life. He does not understand the bravery and courage of other people, because he has never had one of his own.
“I take my wheelchair and my titanium legs on Donald Trump’s supposed bone spurs any day,” he added, referring to the reason Trump received draft deferrals during the Vietnam War.
The call also included Democratic Congressman Conor Lamb, a Navy veteran, and Khizr Khan, a Gold Star father whose son was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004.
Khan said Trump is “incapable, let me repeat it, he is incapable of understanding service, courage and courage.”
“His soul cannot conceive of integrity and honor,” Khan continued. “His soul is that of a coward.”
The secretary of state defended the president’s support for the military in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“I never heard that,” Mike Pompeo said of Trump calling the war dead “fools.” “In fact, quite the opposite. I’ve been with him in many settings where there were active duty military, guards, reservists, veterans. This is a man who had the deepest respect for their service, and always, always interacted with them in that way. Enjoy those moments. Value those people. “
On Friday, the Biden campaign released a video quoting the president based on the Atlantic story and then corroborating reports from the Washington Post and Associated Press.
With the slogan “If you don’t respect our troops, you can’t lead them,” the video superimposes alleged Trump quotes on images of military cemeteries.
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