President Trump and White House officials pushed back furiously Thursday night against a published report that President Trump skipped a visit to an American military cemetery in France in 2018 after calling the dead “losers” for getting killed in battle.
Mr. Trump called the report in The Atlantic “a disgrace” and said the article is based on sources whom he called “animals.” He called The Atlantic “a total never-Trumper magazine.”
“I would be willing to swear on anything” about the falsity of the report, he told reporters, citing aides and Secret Service agents who can defend him.
On Twitter, the president said he would swear “that I never called our great fallen soldiers anything other than HEROES.”
“This is more made up Fake News given by disgusting & jealous failures in a disgraceful attempt to influence the 2020 Election!” the president said.
He also refuted a passage in the article claiming that he called the late Sen. John McCain a “loser” and balked at giving him government honors for his funeral in September 2018. The president agreed that he and Mr. McCain didn’t get along, but he felt that the former Vietnam War veteran deserved a “first-class” funeral.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the president is “more than offended” by the allegations in The Atlantic.
“He denied them in very emphatic terms,” Mr. Meadows told reporters aboard Air Force One as the president returned to Washington from a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany called the report in The Atlantic “garbage.”
“I see President @realDonaldTrump consistently express his heartfelt gratitude and absolute admiration for our brave men and women in uniform,” she tweeted.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, said the story is “absolutely false.”
“I’ve been by the President’s side,” he said on Twitter. “He has always shown the highest respect to our active duty troops and veterans with utmost respect paid to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and those wounded in battle.”
The Atlantic story quoted four unidentified people “with firsthand knowledge” of the episode in November 2018. The article claims that Mr. Trump canceled a scheduled visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris by falsely blaming rain and a helicopter that couldn’t fly.
“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” the president allegedly told aides. The article also states that the president referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood in World War I as “suckers” for getting killed.
The president said he wanted to go to the cemetery but could not because of heavy rain in Paris, and the Secret Service would not allow him to take a motorcade to the ceremony.
Mr. Meadows said the president and his team in France could not fly because of the weather, and tried for two hours to arrange a motorcade.
White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said on Twitter, “Not a soul brave enough to put their name on any of these accusations. 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!”
Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden said if the report is true, it is “yet another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the president of the United States.”
“If I have the honor of serving as the next commander in chief, I will ensure that our American heroes know that I will have their back and honor their sacrifice — always,” Mr. Biden said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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