Throughout the campaign, trail President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other prominent Democrats have faced backlash for touting debunked hoaxes about President-elect Donald Trump. In one instance during a speech in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden repeated unproven claims that Trump had called military service members “suckers and losers.”
“I have to say, there are a lot of things that Donald Trump has said and done that I find extremely offensive. But one that offends me the most is when he refused, as president, to visit an American cemetery outside of Paris when he was president. Why? He said that those soldiers who gave their lives were, quote — it was his quote — ‘suckers’ and ‘losers,’” Biden said during the Scranton speech.
The clip sparked a substantial backlash from conservatives on the internet who called out Biden for the pushing the debunked hoax about Donald TrumpThat story has been debunked so many times. Biden lies again. RNC Research, an account run by the Republican National Committee that continually fact-checks President Biden, suggested that Biden was “not well” after shouting the debunked claims. Furthermore, a user in the comments section lamented, “That story has been debunked so many times. Biden lies again.”
The fact-checking website Snopes addressed the claim that has been continually pushed by Democrats to attack Trump’s character. The narrative stems from a 2020 article published in The Atlantic about an incident in 2018 where Trump allegedly did not want to visit a cemetery. The story relied on anonymous sources whose claims could not be proven.
“Following a story by The Atlantic, a number of reputable news outlets reported on the alleged comments in 2020, relying entirely on anonymous sources from his administration,” Snopes wrote. “However, there appeared to be no evidence of an audio or video recording of the remarks in question, nor was there any documentation, such as transcripts or presidential notes, to independently confirm or deny the alleged quotes’ authenticity. Moreover, since Snopes did not witness the in-question comments firsthand, we can’t say for certain whether Trump called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers.””
The fact-checking cite further explained that the claims against Trump are entirely unproven. “In sum, the claim stemmed from a story by The Atlantic, which relied on anonymous, second-hand reports of Trump’s alleged words; there was no independent footage or documented proof to substantiate the in-question comments; and Trump vehemently denies that he once called service members “losers” and “suckers.” While it was certainly possible that he said those things, Snopes was unable to independently verify the claim,” the site wrote.
Biden also repeated these claims during several other instances on the campaign trail. “I was reminded of what my opponent said in Paris not too long ago. They asked him to go visit American gravesites. He said ‘no.’ He wouldn’t do it. Because they were all ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’ I’m not making that up,” Bided said during an event in Pittsburgh. “What I was thinking about when I was standing there was when Trump refused to go up to the memorial for veterans in Paris, and he said they were a bunch of ‘suckers’ and ‘losers,’” he also said in Avoca, Pennsylvania.
Watch Biden below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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