Kamala once again spreads debunked hoax that Trump called veterans 'suckers' and 'losers'

On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign repeated a debunked false accusation against former President Donald Trump, claiming without evidence that Trump called military veterans "suckers" and "losers." The claim, published in The Atlantic in 2020, has been debunked by fact-checkers and several staffers who accompanied Trump that day.

"Four years ago today, The Atlantic reported that Donald Trump called fallen American service members 'suckers' and 'losers' and refused to visit their graves. This was later confirmed by a Fox News reporter and Trump's former Chief of Staff and retired four-star general John Kelly," Kamala HQ wrote on X.

Trump has repeatedly denied the "terrible" accusations made by John Kelly, who claimed that the former president canceled a 2018 visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris, because he didn't believe it was important to honor US military members killed in war. Kelly claimed to the magazine - after he had been fired from the administration - that Trump called the fallen veterans "suckers" and "losers."

However, the allegation has been widely debunked by at least a dozen former Trump staffers who had accompanied the President that day. Additionally, several fact-checking websites, including Snopes, have not been able to verify the accusations. The Atlantic cited anonymous sources for the report, but Snopes found no evidence to back up the assertions.

The Harris campaign may be doing damage control in an effort to regain support among veterans after Gold Star families of the 13 servicemembers killed during the botched Afghanistan withdrawal slammed the vice president over the weekend for refusing to personally acknowledge their loved ones' deaths to the families. The families were upset that VP Harris called the tragedy a "success," and said she had never contacted them to express condolences. They urged Americans to elect Trump in Nov., claiming that Harris is "unfit" to be president.

Trump cleared up the allegations in a recent interview with former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan, saying that it was a "made-up story."

"It was made up by a magazine, and I think it was 'The Atlantic,' which is a radical left magazine, and as soon as I heard it, I said, 'That's a terrible thing.'"

"And you don't get rid of it, you know they make these things and they just use it and use it, the opposing side, they know it's false," said Trump. "I had twenty-six people that said it never happened. Who would say it?"

The false claim is still repeated by both the DNC and the Harris-Walz campaign, even though it has been refuted.