When I first heard that President Trump allegedly called dead troops “losers,” my first response was, “Oh boy.” But that lasted about five seconds. Yes, the President has been known to say things off the cuff that aren’t necessarily “presidential,” but he has not been known to make remarks like that in private. It just didn’t fit.
His comments about how he likes his “heroes” regarding John McCain in the early days of the 2016 election cycle were the predicate for The Atlantic’s story about the President’s comments. He’s said insensitive things about the military in the past, so why couldn’t he have said it in the presence of anonymous sources now? To answer that, we have to understand the difference between what the President says and what leftists think he says in their mind. That’s where the “smell test” comes into play. Their story simply didn’t pass it. It sounded more like a combination of progressive journalists projecting their opinions about the President and then backing up those claims with sources who have nothing to lose. Anonymity has its privileges, among them being the lack of repercussions for confirming lies.
And as it turns out, those present when the President allegedly made the remarks are actually going on record saying it’s all fabricated. But before we get to those, let’s look at the two paragraphs from The Atlantic that are causing all the hoopla. I’ve added emphasis to the parts that do not pass the “smell test” as they sound very much like how progressives view the President and nothing like how the President actually acts:
When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.
Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
These are comments that do not fit with anything the President has been known to say but fit perfectly with the comic book super-villain caricature many leftists picture in their mind. They would hear these words and never question the validity of the claims because they want him to have said them. This seems very much more like activist journalism than properly sourced claims. According to The Daily Wire, at least five people who were there have gone on record saying The Atlantic’s narrative is fabricated:
However, purported emails from officials that day state that the reason that Trump did not attend the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial was, in fact, due to bad weather.
White House official has sent an image of redacted email apparently showing "bad weather call" was indeed cause of Trump not attending Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in 2018.
Dan Scavino and Stephen Miller were also both there – and deny Atlantic storyhttps://t.co/jQNgHX0Fd7 pic.twitter.com/Gzre4oYEs9
— Rob Crilly (@robcrilly) September 4, 2020
On that Atlantic Story – @JeffreyGoldberg and his "four sources" claim Trump's helicopter flight to the US/French cemetery wasn't cancelled due to weather.
FOIA docs prove this to be false.
Their "sources" are failing basic fact checks – making them essentially worthless. pic.twitter.com/wAa7FrSxoW
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) September 4, 2020
Furthermore, four officials in the Trump administration who were with the president that day went on record, unlike those who made the allegations against Trump, and directly disputed their account of what happened.
Jordan Karem, Personal Aide to President Trump, wrote on Twitter: “This is not even close to being factually accurate. Plain and simple, it just never happened.”
This is not even close to being factually accurate. Plain and simple, it just never happened ?♂️ https://t.co/8YZlWS83I3
— Jordan Karem (@JordanKarem1) September 3, 2020
“Again, this is 100% false,” Karem added. “I was next to @POTUS the whole day! The President was greatly disappointed when told we couldn’t fly there. He was incredibly eager to honor our Fallen Heroes.”
Again, this is 100% false. I was next to @POTUS the whole day! The President was greatly disappointed when told we couldn’t fly there. He was incredibly eager to honor our Fallen Heroes. https://t.co/8YZlWS83I3
— Jordan Karem (@JordanKarem1) September 4, 2020
The left will take The Atlantic’s claims from anonymous sources and never question them. But credible witnesses on the record are meaningless to them. They WANT to believe President Trump said these things even if evidence points otherwise.
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