‘His soul is that of a coward’: Biden camp blasts Trump over reports he called dead U.S. troops ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’

WASHINGTON — Surrogates for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, including two military veterans and a Gold Star father, ripped into President Donald Trump on Friday following a report that he called fallen U.S. service members “suckers” and “losers” while in office.  

Trump denies the report.

“He is incapable of understanding service, valor and courage. His soul cannot conceive of integrity and honor,” Khizr Khan, whose son died in 2004 during the Iraq War, said in a campaign call with reporters.

“His soul is that of a coward,” Khan said. Trump had previously criticized Khan following the latter’s appearance at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

“I’m not shocked, but I am appalled,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a Purple Heart veteran who lost her legs in Iraq when her helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.

“I take my wheelchair and my titanium legs over Donald Trump’s supposed bone spurs any day,” Duckworth said on the call, sniping at Trump’s excuse for not serving in the Vietnam War. Duckworth earlier this year had been viewed as a possible vice presidential pick for Biden, who ultimately selected Sen. Kamala Harris of California as his running mate. 

Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., a Marine Corps reservist, also spoke on the call.

The attacks from the Biden camp came a day after The Atlantic reported that Trump declined to visit an American cemetery near Paris in 2018 and referred to U.S. Marines buried there as “losers” and “suckers.” He also reportedly expressed concerns that the rain he now says prevented him from flying to the site would mess up his hair.

“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” Trump told aides after scrapping the visit to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, according to The Atlantic. The magazine did not identify the aides. The report said Trump later referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives in the Battle of Belleau Wood in France as “suckers” for getting killed.

The 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood dragged on for 20 days and ended with U.S. Marines successfully clearing out German camps. The Allied victory became an enduring symbol in U.S. Marine Corps history. 

 Biden himself criticized Trump in a statement Thursday evening.

“If the revelations in today’s Atlantic article are true, then they are yet another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the president of the United States,” Biden said. “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.”

Trump, who is running for reelection in November, told reporters that the magazine report was “a total lie” and “a disgrace.”

“To think that I would make statements negative to our military and fallen heroes when nobody has done what I’ve done,” for the U.S. armed forces, Trump told reporters. “It’s a total lie … It’s a disgrace.”

Members of the Trump administration also denied that the president spoke disparagingly about fallen U.S. military personnel buried at the cemetery.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during an interview on “Fox Friends” that he has “never heard the president use the language that is certainly said in that article about him calling military suckers and losers.”

“Indeed, just the contrary, he has always had the deepest respect. I’m a veteran, too. I care deeply about these young men and women, and I have watched the president honor them and every situation that I’ve been in with him as well,” Pompeo said.

“I wasn’t in Paris, but it never happened,” Vice President Mike Pence told CNBC on Friday when asked about the report. “I talked to the president that day, I know how disappointed the president was that there was a bad weather call. I’ve never been with anyone who cares more deeply about the men and women of our armed forces or respects them and their families than President Donald Trump.” 

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/04/biden-camp-blasts-trump-as-a-coward-over-atlantic-report.html