President Joe Biden seemingly got under Donald Trump’s skin at their presidential debate on Thursday night by calling him a “sucker” and a “loser,” words the former president is purported to have used behind closed doors about dead U.S. soldiers.
The Atlantic reported in 2020 that Trump had repeatedly expressed open disgust for America’s fallen service members, reportedly canceling a 2018 trip to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery because it was raining and filled with “losers,” and referring to Marines killed in World War I as “suckers.”
Trump denied the reports at the time, but they were confirmed last year to CNN by his own former White House chief of staff, John Kelly.
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The magazine’s reporting has resurfaced in recent weeks as Trump’s behavior has been compared by political commentators and media outlets to a recent trip by Biden to Normandy, France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
A furious Trump has repeatedly insisted to his followers at campaign trail stops this month that those “horrible” stories about him were “made up” by The Atlantic’s writer. In a beautiful example of the Streisand effect, however, his protests have only served to propel the alleged incidents further out into the open.
On Thursday, Biden joined the dog pile while answering a question about veterans and their benefits.
“Veterans are better off since the PACT Act—whatever happened to you, whether Agent Orange or burn pits, it’s covered. And he opposed that,” Biden said, before switching to a more personal tack.
“My son spent years in Iraq [and] came back with stage IV glioblastoma,” he continued, referring to the late Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer at the age of 46 in 2015. “I was in France for D-Day and spoke about heroes who have died. I went to the World War II and World War I cemetery with a four-star general”—meaning Kelly—“who said he”—meaning Trump—“didn’t want to go in there because they were losers and suckers.
“My son was not a sucker or a loser,” Biden spat. “You’re the loser, you’re the sucker.”
Trump hit back immediately, calling The Atlantic “a third-rate magazine” and saying that he had “19 people” backing him up on his claim that the quotes had been fabricated.
“Nobody has taken care of veterans better than me,” he insisted.
