Biden Blasts Trump for His History of Disrespecting the Military

Biden presents a diploma to a West Point graduate in 2016.Xinhua/Zuma

For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday shot back at President Trump’s apparent disdain for American troops, calling his reported remarks about soldiers who died in battle “disgusting.”
Biden’s comments came in response to an explosive Atlantic article, published Thursday, that describes Trump referring to soldiers who were killed in battle as “losers,” excluding wounded veterans from military parades, and canceling a visit to an American cemetery near Paris because he was more concerned about the appearance of his hair on a rainy day than honoring the dead. Trump reacted, as usual, by attempting to discredit the media.

The Atlantic Magazine is dying, like most magazines, so they make up a fake story in order to gain some relevance. Story already refuted, but this is what we are up against. Just like the Fake Dossier. You fight and and fight, and then people realize it was a total fraud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020

But Biden, speaking from a community center in Delaware, pointed out that Trump has repeatedly and irrefutably disparaged veterans in the past. “We’ve heard from his own mouth his characterizations of American hero John McCain as a loser in 2015,” Biden said, “and his dismissal of the traumatic brain injuries suffered by troops serving in Iraq as mere ‘headaches’ not too long ago.”
Biden also brought up his son Beau Biden’s military service, insisting that “when he went to Iraq for a year, won the Bronze Star and other commendations, he wasn’t a sucker.”
And Biden called attention to perhaps the most egregious insult to the military of all. “He stood by, failing to take action or even raise the issue of Vladimir Putin, while the Kremlin puts bounties on the heads of American troops in Afghanistan,” Biden said. “Quite frankly, if what is written in The Atlantic is true, it is disgusting. It affirms what most of us believe to be true—that Donald Trump is not fit to be the commander in chief.”

According to a new report from The Atlantic, Trump’s referred to service people killed in battle as “suckers.”
For Biden, who was speaking from a community center in Delaware, it was personal: “When my son volunteered and joined the United States military… he wasn’t a sucker!” pic.twitter.com/blFx7whABB
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) September 4, 2020