The “story” in The Atlantic about President Trump derisively speaking of fallen U.S. troops has been widely debunked by people who were actually there, as my PJ Media colleague Matt Margolis writes, and now there’s even more reason to doubt its veracity.
Within hours of The Atlantic’s hit piece on Trump, there was a far-Left “Vote Vets” commercial on the air about it and a question about the Atlantic story was the first one asked at a Joe Biden campaign presser.
Gee, it’s as if they were working together or something.
Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg’s piece, entitled, “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’” and subtitled, “The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, multiple sources tell The Atlantic,” is based on President Trump’s missed trip during his 2018 visit to France. You may recall, the president was due to go the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, but the trip was scrapped due to weather.
Goldberg says that, in fact, the trip was canceled for a number of reasons—reasons that sound like Rachel Maddow wrote them for him.
- His hair would be blown out of place
- He didn’t believe it was important to honor America’s war dead
Goldberg also threw in the mention that this meant that “the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood [were] ‘suckers’ for getting killed.” Goldberg’s overall theme was basically, “gee, why does the president hate our troops so much?”
Joe Biden Accused of Groping Breast of Secret Service Agent’s Girlfriend During 2009 Photo-Op
To support his thesis, Goldberg referenced his rice-paper-thin story using anonymous sources to a real story, a touchstone that Americans knew to be true. Goldberg attached his anonymously-sourced claim to the very real fact that President Trump called political foe Senator John McCain a “loser” yet, when he died, granted his family a state funeral to which the president was pointedly not invited. Trump derided McCain, who had never made a secret of his disdain for Trump.
It was, you’ll recall, McCain’s longtime colleague David Kramer who was dispatched to fetch the Steele dossier – basically a bunch of memos written by Steele based upon the drunk musings and wouldn’t-it-be-funny-if scenarios of gossips at bars. “Wait, wait, wait, you guys. OK, what if we said that Trump paid hookers to pee on a bed …”
Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid for this for oppo-research. Steele, who hated Trump as much or maybe worse than McCain, wanted his memos in the media and wanted McCain and selected pet reporters to carry his water.
McCain is the one who turned over the fake Steele dossier to the FBI to use to try and politically hurt Trump. Small wonder that’s all Trump called him.
Man Suspected of Gunning Down Trump Supporter in Portland Is Killed When Marshals Try to Arrest Him
At one of Joe Biden’s rare, but pre-scripted, “press” availabilities, the first question asked was about the Atlantic piece.
The Washington Examiner’s Byron York noted all the questions that were asked at the presser.
York said the questions were all just versions of “how bad Trump is.”
The first one was, “What does the Atlantic article tell you about Trump’s soul and the life he leads?”
What the hell kind of question is that?
Many of the questions for Joe Biden after his remarks today consisted of reporters asking Biden to elaborate on how bad Trump is. A list (not exact quotes): pic.twitter.com/0ixZlVcItz
— Byron York (@ByronYork) September 4, 2020
Within hours of the Atlantic think-piece, Joe Biden’s team quickly put out two online commercials declaring how wonderful he is for glad-handing troops and castigating Trump over The Atlantic editor’s musings.
Mr. President, if you don’t respect our troops, you can’t lead them. pic.twitter.com/hcX9hGgdm5
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 4, 2020
Witnesses who were with the president that day – John Bolton included – said those words never crossed the president’s lips. Bolton said if Trump had said it he would have put it in his book.
The Democrats’ use of The Atlantic—the publication’s owner, a Biden “mega-donor”—plus allied groups to help Joe Biden was an obvious attempt to try to put a chink in Trump’s armor. It was a case study, clumsy and obvious though it may have been, of a real-time political hit, the objective of which seemed to be to peel off votes from … Republicans? It’s no secret that military might is not a Democrat issue, especially now with all the anti-police and anti-military riots on the streets.
Besides being a transparent multi-pronged hit job, it also points out one more thing: the recent switch by Democrats to blaming the riots on Trump wasn’t working.
Makes you wonder what they’ve got up their sleeves for the next 60 days. Write down your predictions in the comments section.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member