As media outlets switch from the story of what they say was President Trump telling Americans to vote illegally to a story from left-leaning magazine The Atlantic about remarks he supposedly said about American fallen soldiers, Trump said he doesn't need to make an apology, because the story in fake news.
The Atlantic article was written by editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who like most stories with serious accusations, cited “anonymous sources.” In the article, he said that Trump refused to do a planned trip in 2018 to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery because of rain, and that the president was worried about his hair. But even worse, he said that the cemetery was “filled with losers.” Goldbery also wrote that Trump said the U.S. Marines killed at Belleau Wood during World War I were “suckers.” And to make the story worse, he said Trump said they were “suckers” because they died.
The White House has been quick to say this story has no grounds, as current and former officials deny the accusations. Furthermore, people who were actually present on the trip have called the story untrue. They have also pointed to the book written by Former Ambassador John Bolton, who has turned on Trump, where he described the event as canceled because of bad weather. If Trump had said those things, given Bolton’s motive’s, it would have been a great selling point as he penned a scathing book about his old boss.
Thursday night, Trump first said the story was a lie, telling reporters at Joint Base Andrews, “If people really exist that would have said that, they’re low lifes and they’re liars. And I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes. There is nobody that respects them more.”
And today, while in a meeting in the Oval Office with Kosovo and Serbia leaders, Trump continued about the story, “It’s a fake story written by a magazine that was probably not going to be around much longer, but it was a totally fake story and that was confirmed by many people that were actually there. It was a terrible thing that somebody could say the kind of things — especially to me because I have done more for the military than almost anybody else.”
Goldberg, on the other hand, went on MSNBC to speak to Andrea Mitchell, where he said he “believed” President Trump said those comments.
Why this matters: Trump’s presidency has been plagued by news articles written by left-wind journalists who cite “anonymous sources.” This article, which is now circulating the internet as a fact, has no proof behind it. The problem, however, is people now will start to say it like it absolutely the truth, and will use it in their long list of things Trump did wrong. The Democrats, also, will use this baseless information for their campaigns. The left-wing media often complains that Trump is attacking them, but their quality of reporting has dramatically shifted to gossip since Trump became president, as their own political bias clouds their former journalism standards. Furthermore, it is why Mark Meadows has been planting information to staffers in the White House to figure out who the leakers are. There are many Republicans who work for the Trump administration to get the title, but secretly undermine the president. It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s happened multiple times. But with these “leakers,” they are most likely looking for attention rather than serving as credible “sources.” The media, because of these trends, are less and less trusted by the American people, and it is because stories like Goldberg’s, who defended his article by what he “believed.”
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