When Pete Buttigieg was asked by Fox News on September 4 why he believed that The Atlantic’s report that President Donald Trump disparaged fallen troops was true, he cited the network’s own reporting. Trump has denied calling America’s war dead “losers” and “suckers” when he went to France in 2018, as The Atlantic claimed.
Buttigieg–the former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and candidate for the presidential Democratic nomination–is a veteran of the Afghanistan war.
“This is a pattern we have seen from the president throughout his life. When he was a young man, he faked a disability so he could avoid serving when it was his turn,” Buttigieg said. “We watched him refer to prisoners of war like John McCain as losers with our own eyes.”
For those who believed the president, Buttigieg urged viewers to take to Google. “If you are watching this, home here’s how willing Donald Trump is to insult your intelligence,” he said. “Today he denied he ever called John McCain a loser. Again, if you’re watching this at home, grab your phone, go on Google, you can see video of him doing it. You can see a tweet of him doing it. So I think it’s pretty easy to figure out who to believe. And indeed again I’m looking at the internet right now, Fox News itself has confirmed many of the details of the story.”
On Fox News, @PeteButtigieg is asked why he thinks Atlantic story on Trump is true.
Mayor Pete: Fox has confirmed some of the details itself!
Trump Denied The Atlantic’s Report
Trump denied disparaging U.S. troops, claiming The Atlantic was a failing publication that was peddling fake news. He said the story was a “hoax.”
“It’s a fake story written by a magazine that was probably not going to be around much longer,” Trump said, as reported by Politico. “But it was a totally fake story, and that was confirmed by many people who were actually there. It was a terrible thing that somebody could say the kind of things, and especially to me, because I’ve done more for the military than almost anybody else.”
First lady Melania Trump also slammed the report. “@TheAtlantic story is not true. It has become a very dangerous time when anonymous sources are believed above all else, & no one knows their motivation,” she tweeted. “This is not journalism–It is activism. And it is a disservice to the people of our great nation.”
The Atlantic’s Reporting Was Confirmed by Fox News Contributor Jennifer Griffin
….John a loser and swear on whatever, or whoever, I was asked to swear on, 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!
Fox News contributor Jennifer Griffin tweeted that two former senior Trump administration officials confirmed The Atlantic’s report.
“President Trump’s staff explained he could cancel (his visit to the cemetery), but he was warned, ‘They (the press) are going to kill you for this’. The President was mad as a hornet when they did,” she tweeted.
The president denied holding a grudge against Sen. John McCain and calling him a loser.
As cited by Forbes, Trump ridiculed the late senator in 2015 during his presidential campaign at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa. Trump said he prefers people who aren’t “losers” and “weren’t captured.”
McCain, who served 23 years in the U.S. Navy and received two Purple Hearts for his service, was imprisoned and tortured during the Vietnam war by North Vietnamese forces for nearly six years. The injuries he sustained left him incapable of raising his arms above his head.
Griffin reported Trump “hated” the late Arizona senator. “Regarding McCain, ‘The President just hated John McCain. He always asked, ‘Why do you see him as a hero?’,” she tweeted. “Two sources confirmed the President did not want flags lowered but others in the White House ordered them at half-mast. There was a standoff and then the President relented.”
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