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President Donald Trump was on the defensive on Sunday over his perspective towards the US navy following media reports that he had disparaged fallen veterans, which might hurt his marketing campaign for re-election on Nov. 3.
Democratic and Republican opponents alike over the weekend seized on the reports – which mentioned that Trump had referred to as US troopers buried in Europe “losers” – to assault his file on the navy on information exhibits and in political adverts.
“It breaks your heart,” US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentioned of the reported feedback in an interview on MSNBC on Sunday.
Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, a Republican, informed ABC’s “This Week” that the remarks, if true, have been “despicable.”
Hagel mentioned the reports have been “credible” as a result of they have been according to earlier public remarks Trump had made denigrating navy personnel, together with former US Defense Secretary James Mattis.
“It will resonate” with the navy, he added.
Retired US Army Colonel Jeff McCausland, a former National Security Council official, wrote in an op-ed for NBC News on Sunday that Trump over time had demonstrated “a clear pattern of disrespect toward the military.”
The furor over the Sept. Three report in The Atlantic might dent assist for Trump amongst service members, a key constituency for the Republican which largely backed him in 2016.
The Atlantic reported that Trump made the disparaging remarks after canceling a go to to an American cemetery throughout a November 2018 journey to France, an account the president denied on Thursday and on Sunday mentioned was “disinformation.”
“They will say anything, like their recent lies about me and the Military, and hope that it sticks,” he tweeted, referring to the media and the Democratic Party, whose nominee Joe Biden is vying for the presidency in November.
The Atlantic has stood by its report, which cited 4 unnamed individuals with firsthand information of the matter and which was later confirmed by a number of different media retailers.
Bloomberg on Sunday reported that Trump spent the additional free time in Paris choosing art work to ship from the US ambassador’s residence to the White House. The White House didn’t reply to a request for remark on the Bloomberg report.
Former Vice President Biden, whose late son Beau served in Iraq, on Sunday capitalized upon the uproar to focus on his personal file of navy assist with a commercial geared toward areas with giant numbers of navy personnel in battleground states.
The advert will air nationwide on Sunday night time throughout cable tv information packages and on Facebook and Instagram all through the week as a part of a broader $47 million marketing campaign, a spokesman informed Reuters on Sunday.
The Lincoln Project, a distinguished Republican-backed group opposing Trump’s re-election, on Saturday launched a brand new video attacking the president’s feedback and broader file on the navy. Trump has by no means served and averted the draft for the Vietnam struggle citing bone spurs in his toes.
“He’s a draft-dodger in chief who despises the men and women he supposedly leads. He insults their deaths and injuries with his contempt,” it mentioned.
Military spending
Trump has repeatedly touted his administration’s spending on the navy whereas additionally shifting to drag American troops out of conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan, as effectively as out of allied international locations such as Germany.
More not too long ago, he has mentioned he would block the Pentagon’s plan to chop navy healthcare by $2.2 billion and reverse its plan to shut the Stars and Stripes navy newspaper.
Nevertheless, a Military Times ballot of roughly 1,000 active-duty service members taken late July to early August and revealed final week, earlier than the newest reports, confirmed waning navy assist for Trump and a slight choice for Biden.
Several prime administration officers, together with US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have rallied to Trump’s protection as the controversy has grown in latest days.
On Sunday, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie informed CNN’s “State of the Union” that he had by no means heard the president disparage the navy or veterans. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin informed reporters on the White House that Trump supported the navy “100%.”
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