From the Intelligencer:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/corroboration-atlantic-report-trump-troops-soldiers-losers-cemetary-amputees.htmlWhile it's impossible to directly prove any of these allegations, there is an impressive amount of corroborating evidence. Almost all of it supports Goldberg's reporting.
One piece of evidence works against
The Atlantic: John Bolton's memoir emphasizes different reasons Trump canceled a visit to an American military cemetery in France in 2018. Goldberg's four sources say Trump worried about the effect of rain on his hair, and commented, "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers."
Bolton says the visit was canceled because the rain complicated helicopter travel, and the drive would have taken too long. Of course this does not directly contradict Goldberg's reporting. It is entirely possible that there were multiple reasons for the cancellation, or that weather forced the cancellation and Trump decided to justify it by dismissing the value of honoring fallen soldiers. But Bolton's recollection does count as a point in Trump's defense.
On the other side, however, there are many pieces of supporting evidence. The
Associated Press,
New York Times,
Fox News (!) and
Washington Post quickly confirmed Goldberg's reporting. The
Post added several related details, in addition to Trump describing fallen soldiers as "losers." "In one account, the president told senior advisers that he didn't understand why the U.S. government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action because they had performed poorly and gotten caught and deserved what they got, according to a person familiar with the discussion."
What's more, other sources have claimed that Trump dismisses the value of military service.
Michael Cohen testified in 2018 that Trump admitted faking bone spurs to avoid serving in Vietnam and told him, "You think I'm stupid? I wasn't going to Vietnam."
Mary Trump, in a previously recorded interview, said Trump threatened to disown one of her sons if he enlisted in the military. (It's significant that she offered this account before Goldberg's story, and thus could not have crafted it to fit a narrative created by Goldberg.)
Trump's
denial itself contains provable falsehoods:
Photo: @realDonaldTrump/Twitter
First, Trump did call McCain a "loser." It's on video. Trump even tweeted the video of himself saying it:
Trump also made a version of the same attack in a 1999 interview, when he
said of McCain, "He was captured,. Does being captured make you a hero? I don't know. I'm not sure."
Second, while Trump claims he lowered the White House flag to half-mast to honor McCain's death "without hesitation or complaint," four sources told the
Times in 2018 that Trump stubbornly refused until finally and belatedly submitting. Former Homeland Security chief of staff
Miles Taylor confirmed the account today, on the record.
And finally there is the obvious fact that Trump, in 2015, disparaged John McCain for being captured. That is to say, the private comments Trump is fervently denying are merely grosser versions of his publicly explicated view, that being captured because his plane was shot down makes McCain a loser and not a hero.
This is the most remarkable fact about the defenses of Trump pouring in from the right. Trump is
obviously a massive liar. He has already made clear that he does not respect military service. They are throwing what's left of their reputations on the line to deny nothing more than an incrementally worse version of a reality that Trump has already revealed.
It's like the "grabbing them by the *****" comment. If you have said such things in other settings in the past, the odds that you say them again is pretty good, especially if your guard is down. And especially if you are holding your "manhood cheap on St. Cripisans Day". Guilt and shame often cause people to talk **** about those who have sacrificed when they did not. I like the athletic type
