Whenever a new report comes out that President Donald Trump said or did something rude, dumb, or embarrassing, his supporters engage in a tediously predictable cycle: 1) they insist it did not happen (“Fake news!”), 2) they claim Trump was just joking (Poe’s Law), 3) they argue it doesn’t matter, 4) they say even if you think it matters, it’s not a big deal because the really bad people are the Democrats/the media/Hollywood celebrities/whoever Trump is mad at today, and then finally 5) some new awful story pops up to grab everyone’s attention and the cycle starts anew.

For those of you keeping track, we are now at step one regarding Jeffrey Goldberg‘s shocking article published at The Atlantic on Thursday.

In the article, Goldberg cites four anonymous sources who said that Trump made shockingly disrespectful comments about not wanting to visit an American cemetery for WWI war dead because he didn’t want to mess up his hair, demeaned those interred there as “losers” and “suckers,” complained about having to lower flags out of respect after Sen. John McCain’s death, and slammed McCain shortly after his passing as a “fucking loser.”

Trump also reportedly called former President George H.W. Bush a “loser” for being shot down as a Navy pilot during WWII, sought to exclude wounded veterans from a military parade because “nobody wants to see” amputees, made disparaging remarks about soldiers’ sacrifices at other veterans cemetery visits — including while accompanying the then-Secretary of Homeland Security and his future chief of staff, John Kelly, to visit his son Robert Kelly‘s grave.

Unsurprisingly, Goldberg’s article drew swift and vocal outrage, that the commander-in-chief could even conceive of disrespecting our veterans and war dead in such a way.

The article also drew responses from some Trump defenders, who sneered at the article’s anonymous sources and openly pontificated that a retraction would be forthcoming.

Among these was a tweet from Washington Examiner columnist Tim Carney, who cut to the point: “Odds of a retraction?”

Odds of a retraction? https://t.co/d4nHonxQZ4

— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) September 3, 2020

Disgraced GOP operative Caleb Hull had his own two cents to throw in, boldly predicting “about a 75% chance of retraction.”

Sorry, but it’s going to take a lot more than “four people” who are mysteriously unnamed talking about something Trump supposedly did two years ago to convince me.

This one’s on your countless mess-ups, media. I give this latest story about a 75% chance of retraction.

— Kelb Hull (@CalebJHull) September 3, 2020

So far, late into the evening on Thursday, there has not been any statement or comment from Trump or any other White House official debunking Goldberg’s article — and another reporter with an entirely separate media outlet, James LaPorta with the AP — tweeted that he had spoken with a “senior Defense Department official” who “confirmed this story by [Goldberg] in its entirety.”

A senior Defense Department official I just spoke with confirmed this story by @JeffreyGoldberg in its entirety. Especially the grafs about the late Sen. John McCain and former Marine Gen. John Kelly, President @realDonaldTrump former chief of staff. https://t.co/ol2lhBbgv8

— James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) September 3, 2020

Beyond the additional support from LaPorta, the trouble with the Trump defenders’ reaction to this story is that Trump himself has said comments like this many times, publicly and on the record, often preserved in an audio or video recording:

• In 2015, he said that Sen. John McCain, who was brutally tortured as a POW in Vietnam, was “not a war hero” and “I like people who weren’t captured”;
• He initially refused to allow the White House flag to be lowered to half-staff after McCain’s death in 2018 and only did so after intense public pressure from veterans and bipartisan members of Congress;
• He complained again in March 2019 that he had “had to give” McCain the funeral he wanted, and that he “didn’t get a thank you”;
• He called retired four-star General John Allen a “failed general” and someone who “hasn’t done so well”;
• In 2016 after the family of Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in combat, spoke at the Democratic National Convention, he criticized them and falsely claimed Khan’s mother was forced to be subservient and compared the grieving family’s sacrifices to his own work having “created thousands and thousands of jobs”;
• In October 2017, during a call with the widow of Army Sgt. LaDavid Johnson, he made her cry by  forgetting the slain soldier’s name and telling her that “he knew what he signed up for”;
• He repeatedly dismissed issue-based policy criticisms by retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal, who led American forces in Afghanistan from 2009 and 2010, and retired Admiral William McRaven, the former Navy SEAL behind the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden, as just “Hillary Clinton lovers,” and also said McChrystal “had a big dumb mouth”; and
• In October 2019, after retired four-star General James Mattis resigned as Secretary of Defense, he slammed him as “the world’s most overrated general” and said Mattis was not “tough” enough.

That is far from a comprehensive list.

In other words, these Trump defenders are scurrying far, far, far out on a very rickety limb, to suggest that a reporter will be forced to retract a story that is supported by four of his own sources and at least one other independent source so far, and is perfectly in tune with verified comments the president has made for years attacking veterans, dismissing their service and sacrifice, and insulting them and their families.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/2F3bwJ8