Biden spreads hoax that Trump called fallen soldiers 'suckers' and 'losers' in new SC speech

During a speech in South Carolina on Saturday, President Joe Biden angrily accused former President Donald Trump of calling US Military members who were killed in war "suckers and losers." 

In a video of the speech posted on X, Biden claimed, "Donald Trump, when he was commander-in-chief, refused to visit a cemetery, a US Cemetary outside of Paris for fallen American soldiers, and he referred to those heroes as, and I quote, as suckers and losers!" 

"He actually said that!" he yelled. "How dare he say that! How dare he talk about my son and all [inaudible] like that!" 

Posting the clip to X on Sunday afternoon, Biden wrote, "Our veterans aren’t losers. The only loser I see is Donald Trump."

The president was referring to a 2020 article published by the Atlantic where an anonymous source alleged that then-President Trump refused to go to the Aisne-Marne cemetery. "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers," the source claimed Trump said. 

In a press conference at the time, former President Trump repeatedly claimed that the allegations were a "hoax" and accused his former Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly as the source of the allegation. "It could've been a guy like a John Kelly," Trump said. 

"I know John Kelly, he was with me -- didn't do a good job," Trump added. "He had no temperament, and ultimately he was petered out. He was exhausted, this man was totally exhausted." 

Speaking on the incident in question, the then-president said that he wanted to visit the cemetery, but was unable to because of weather. "They had a rainstorm, the likes of which you rarely see," Trump said. "The fog was so great, it was as dense as I've ever seen. I almost knew that you couldn't use the helicopter. And because they had a drive through I guess certain parts of Paris, Secret Service said, 'Nope.'"

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton, who was in the room when Kelly informed Trump the helicopter had to be canceled, denied ever hearing Trump call American soldiers "losers" and "suckers." He told the New York Times, “I didn’t hear that." He noted, "I’m not saying he didn’t say them later in the day or another time, but I was there for that discussion.”

“I was actually there and one of the people part of the discussion, this never happened,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was the White House press secretary at the time of the trip." 

Trump's aide at the time added, “This is not even close to being factually accurate.”

In October, Kelly referenced the claim as if it were true in an interview with CNN. He claimed Trump was “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them'...rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France." 

In a White House press conference at the time, then-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, "the story in The Atlantic has been categorically debunked by eyewitnesses and contemporaneous documents."

She said that 10 people went on record debunking the claims from anonymous sources in The Atlantic piece, including Derek Lyons, then-staff secretary and counselor to the president who said "In all my time at the White House, I have never heard him utter a disparaging remark of any kind about our troops."

"Why would a publication abandon all journalistic integrity and publish this story?" McEnany asked. "It’s because the liberal activists at the Atlantic are uninterested in the truth and only interested in pedaling conspiracy-laden propaganda. Because here is the one truth. No one, and I mean no one, loves and cares for our servicemen and women as much as President Donald J. Trump."

On Veterans Day last year, Trump took to Truth Social to praise members of the Military. "To our heroic Veterans, I am grateful for your service to our Country and honored to wish you a Happy Veterans Day!" 

"There is no greater act of selfless service than defending America’s God-given freedoms and liberty," he said. "The traditions of excellence and integrity demonstrated by our men and women in uniform never fade after leaving the Military—once a Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, Coast Guardsman, or Guardian, always.”

"On this Veterans Day and always, May God Bless you and your family, our Nation’s Veterans, and our Military men and women, and May He Bless and uphold the United States of America. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump concluded.