PITTSBURGH — President Joe Biden choked up Wednesday while talking about family members and former President Donald Trump’s military service. derogatory terms about military personnel.
“They asked [Trump] Visiting American cemeteries. He said, “No.” He wouldn’t do that. Because they were all ‘suckers’ and ‘losers,’” Biden told the crowd of union workers. “I’m not making this up. The workers who were with him admit it today. Soldiers and Losers.”
He paused for a moment and added, “That man is not fit to be commander-in-chief. my son, my uncle.” Beau Biden and Ambrose Finnegan served in the military before Trump took office.
Biden’s comments referred to Trump’s 2018 trip to Paris for the centennial of the end of World War I, when he refused to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and reportedly “sucked” Marines who died at Belleau Wood and soldiers who died at a US cemetery. called it. “the losers.”
Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly confirmed Trump’s statements privately to The Atlantic last year. reported first.
In response to a request for comment, the Trump campaign denied Trump’s comments cited by Biden.
“Joe Biden is repeating an old and tired lie about President Trump to avoid the fact that he is the weakest Commander-in-Chief in history,” national press secretary Caroline Leavitt said in a statement. “When President Trump returns to the White House, he will rebuild our military and restore peace.”
Biden often referenced Trump’s comments in 2018, but Wednesday was the first time he attributed them directly to his son and uncle.
On Tuesday, during a speech at a campaign rally in Trump’s childhood hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden expressed his anger at the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump, calling what he said “insulting.”
“He said the soldiers who gave their lives were … suckers” and “losers,” Biden said. “Who does he think he is?”
“These soldiers are heroes, just like every American who serves this nation,” Biden said to thunderous applause.
Biden, who is in Pittsburgh for the second stop of a three-city tour of Pennsylvania, said he was reminded of Trump’s comments about the military when he visited a war memorial in Scranton.
Olympia Sonnier contributed.