Trump initially came under fire when the magazine The Atlantic reported calling soldiers of the Marine Corps killed in World War I ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’. The Republican president is said to have done so when he skipped a visit to a military cemetery in France in 2018, according to the official explanation because of the bad weather.
Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin then reported that two former government officials affirm that the president “did not want to travel to honor the American war dead,” implying that the weather had not really played a role.
‘Losers’
An official also told Griffin that Trump had indeed dropped the word “suckers” to crack down on the military, but in relation to the Vietnam War. “When the president spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, ‘It was a stupid war. Everyone who went was a fool, ”Griffin quoted the official. “It was a character flaw on the part of the president. He couldn’t understand why anyone would die for his country, ”the source said.
A furious Trump tweeted Friday, “Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting. Never called us for comment. @FoxNews is gone! ” Trump defended the revelation by calling it “fake news” on Twitter.
Fallen
The right-wing and generally Trump-friendly Fox News has been criticized for giving Griffin’s report only a small place in the coverage of Trump’s statements about the fallen. The main page of the Fox News website ran an article on Saturday with the headline “Sources Contest That Trump Canceled Visit to Military Cemetery Over Dain for Fallen Soldiers.” In addition to her colleagues, Republican MP Adam Kinzinger also took to Twitter for Griffin. He called her “fair and unafraid”.
Just before the unveiling of The Atlantic came out, a poll showed through The Military Times and the University of Syracuse Veterans Institute that 37.4 percent of military personnel plan to vote for Trump in November. His Democratic challenger Joe Biden received 43.1 percent of the vote in the poll.
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