The Atlantic: Trump called Dead Soldiers “losers”

[MikeIrvine]

No. It is nothing new or surprising at this point. Also, the Access video had an actual recording with it. This is just reports of him saying...so his hard and soft supporters will say it is fake.

[Horus]

No, there's no voice recording, no sources that aren't anonymous, and as Trump so prophetically said, he could kill someone on 5th avenue and his fans wouldn't care.

Sadly, his remarks will make no difference and change no votes.

[Alben Barkley]

No. It is nothing new or surprising at this point. Also, the Access video had an actual recording with it. This is just reports of him saying...so his hard and soft supporters will say it is fake.

He tried to gaslight after he was elected and claim the tape was fake, even though he initially "apologized" for it.

It wouldn't matter if we had 4K HD footage of Trump screaming "HAIL ISIS! HAIL HITLER!" while executing US soldiers and raping their wives that was confirmed to be authentic by every expert on the planet. His supporters would still claim it was fake.

[Alben Barkley]

No, there's no voice recording, no sources that aren't anonymous, and as Trump so prophetically said, he could kill someone on 5th avenue and his fans wouldn't care.

Sadly, his remarks will make no difference and change no votes.

I was with you until this part. It probably won't have a statistically significant effect or anything, but I don't doubt it will get at least a few military voters who were on the fence about voting for him to either vote for Biden or stay home. This is far worse than even the McCain and Khan comments. Between this and the bounties, he is REALLY pushing just how far he can go with the military.

[QAnonKelly]

I know this is pretty minor part of the horrific myriad of things he said but can we just talk about this for a second? Could you imagine what would be said if this was a female leader?

[Crumpets]

My local news just mentioned this story (briefly), but I dont see anything on the major news websites (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, etc.)
Do you think they are waiting for better/more confirmation?
Maybe tomorrow morning?

MSNBC is covering it pretty extensively, but that's to be expected.

[Ferguson97]

No, I think Trump could quite literally shoot someone on 5th Avenue, claim the victim was antifa, and get away with it.

[Gass3268]

No, this isn't that bad and there is no recording (yet). That said this isn't helpful to Trump and could have some lasting effect with military families and Arizona. Would love to see a poll of who people think would be better for veterans.

[DrScholl]

It's not going to go away quickly because Trump is going to give it more attention by tweeting about it. This is going to be a problem for him and it has already being seized on by Biden and other Democrats. The main problem for Trump is that he cannot even afford any temporary negative stories because the clock is running out.

[Joe Republic]

No, I think Trump could quite literally shoot someone on 5th Avenue, claim the victim was antifa, and get away with it.

In today’s America, shooting somebody on 5th Avenue might swing some undecided voters towards him.

[Big Abraham]

Jeffrey Goldberg? No thanks. He is a neocon-lite and this story slogs on about "the honor and respect and dignity" of U.S. troops getting sent off to die in a pointless war in Europe.

"I don’t get it. What was in it for them?" Exactly.

[catographer]

If there was a tape of Trump saying these things, then I think it would perhaps have even a bigger impact than Access Hollywood. People knew Trump was a pig, and the "grab 'em" tape only confirmed people's priors. People know Trump disparaged McCain for being captured, but those who were outraged are already against him and the rest compartmentalize it.

If Trump was on tape saying the stuff in this article, it would be ironclad irrefutable. Everyone would turn on him. Not sure whether the effect would last till Election Day, but you can bet that if only Never Trumpers feel ashamed to have supported this guy, wait until MAGAts feel ashamed too.

That said, this is an article from anonymous sources. I'm not saying it's false, but it's very deniable and his supporters will dismiss it outright. I think independents will largely believe the article, because they aren't reflexively defensive of Donald and because the story is congruent with Trump's public rhetoric.

[Beet]

There is always a tweet

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/622522682245033984

He'll say whatever is convenient for him at the moment, but his actual view is that the troops are suckers for doing such a tough job and not being like him. What he forgets is that not everybody inherited $1 million from their dad. (And lots more after that.)

[Santander]

Jeffrey Goldberg? No thanks. He is a neocon-lite and this story slogs on about "the honor and respect and dignity" of U.S. troops getting sent off to die in a pointless war in Europe.

"I don’t get it. What was in it for them?" Exactly.

What exactly are you trying to say?

Never blame soldiers for their leaders' mistakes or lack of vision, regardless of which flag they wear on their uniform.

[ProudModerate2]

No, there's no voice recording, no sources that aren't anonymous, and as Trump so prophetically said, he could kill someone on 5th avenue and his fans wouldn't care.

Sadly, his remarks will make no difference and change no votes.

I was with you until this part. It probably won't have a statistically significant effect or anything, but I don't doubt it will get at least a few military voters who were on the fence about voting for him to either vote for Biden or stay home. This is far worse than even the McCain and Khan comments. Between this and the bounties, he is REALLY pushing just how far he can go with the military.

Exactly.
And a real-close state like NC or FL (for example) on election day, could swing/tilt Biden's way.

[morgieb]

At least Access Hollywood was a big thing for a couple of weeks. This will just get forgotten in like 5 days.

[WD]

No, there's no voice recording, no sources that aren't anonymous, and as Trump so prophetically said, he could kill someone on 5th avenue and his fans wouldn't care.

Sadly, his remarks will make no difference and change no votes.

I was with you until this part. It probably won't have a statistically significant effect or anything, but I don't doubt it will get at least a few military voters who were on the fence about voting for him to either vote for Biden or stay home. This is far worse than even the McCain and Khan comments. Between this and the bounties, he is REALLY pushing just how far he can go with the military.

Exactly.
And a real-close state like NC or FL (for example) on election day, could swing/tilt Biden's way.

Exactly. NC and FL have huge military populations. Over 100K in NC and about 90K in FL. There are also several military bases in each state.

[Big Abraham]

Jeffrey Goldberg? No thanks. He is a neocon-lite and this story slogs on about "the honor and respect and dignity" of U.S. troops getting sent off to die in a pointless war in Europe.

"I don’t get it. What was in it for them?" Exactly.

What exactly are you trying to say?

Which part?

In the first paragraph I'm saying that Goldberg, as a neocon, has written this infantile piece of journalism through his filtered perspective, assuming that it was good and honorable for American troops to go off and fight in the First World War (which it wasn't) and that Trump expressing derision to this is somehow a bad thing.

The second paragraph is a quote from the article attributed to Trump that I vaguely agree with. There was nothing in it for them (i.e., the U.S. soldiers)

[Joe Republic]

If Trump really is trying to quickly fashion himself an autocratic dictatorship between November and January, pissing off the entire military probably isn't the best strategy to do so.

A lot of people say this privately, how many hard left and hard right antiwar people have said this privately?

Why fight for Bush's wars, etc.?

Trump is a piece of **** though.

Um, no?

[Yoda]

Can you even imagine if Biden was reported to have said this? The immediate switch from lean Biden to likely Trump?

Republicans are held to the lowest possible standard. They can do absolutely anything and retain 45% of the national vote.

This right here frustrates me more than anything else in the world.

#1 story on facebook? Nancy Pelosi getting her hair done. I guarantee this won't get anywhere close to that, and the two things are not in even in the same universe of abhorrent behavior. A dem will get torn limb from limb for visiting a salon, while a republican president can literally spit on the graves of WWI heroes and it's just Thursday.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Jeffrey Goldberg? No thanks. He is a neocon-lite and this story slogs on about "the honor and respect and dignity" of U.S. troops getting sent off to die in a pointless war in Europe.

"I don’t get it. What was in it for them?" Exactly.

What exactly are you trying to say?

Never blame soldiers for their leaders' mistakes or lack of vision, regardless of which flag they wear on their uniform.

It's a reference to this:

"I don't get it. What was in it for them?" Trump reportedly asked retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, his former chief of staff, as the two stood beside 1st Lt. Robert Kelly's grave at Arlington National Cemetery in 2017.

I think Big Abraham's intended meaning (which he is certainly free to correct me on), is that he thinks the only people who benefited from the men and women suffering and dying in uniform were the "boss class". Or as Gen. Smedley Butler put it, "war is a racket". 

Or to put it another way, Donald Trump is so dumb that he's saying the quiet part out loud. (I certainly don't think he said it out of any concern for anyone else.)

[Big Abraham]

Jeffrey Goldberg? No thanks. He is a neocon-lite and this story slogs on about "the honor and respect and dignity" of U.S. troops getting sent off to die in a pointless war in Europe.

"I don’t get it. What was in it for them?" Exactly.

What exactly are you trying to say?

Never blame soldiers for their leaders' mistakes or lack of vision, regardless of which flag they wear on their uniform.

It's a reference to this:

"I don't get it. What was in it for them?" Trump reportedly asked retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, his former chief of staff, as the two stood beside 1st Lt. Robert Kelly's grave at Arlington National Cemetery in 2017.

I think Big Abraham's intended meaning (which he is certainly free to correct me on), is that he thinks the only people who benefited from the men and women suffering and dying in uniform were the "boss class". Or as Gen. Smedley Butler put it, "war is a racket". 

Or to put it another way, Donald Trump is so dumb that he's saying the quiet part out loud. (I certainly don't think he said it out of any concern for anyone else.)

I certainly agree with this

[Sestak]

Um...no, of course not?

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

I would certainly agree with the statement that one should throw be very skeptical of such stories when they are told by single individuals without audio evidence.

However, there have been so many stories by so many different people over the last four years which crafted a character of Trump that makes such a statement very plausible. I cannot understand how anyone can think that EVERYTHING said about Trump is a lie, especially when it fits very well to the persona that he displays publicly.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Donald Trump likes soldiers who don't get killed. Because when you get killed, you're a failure. And on The Apprentice failures got fired by the Donald.

(It also would be in line with his McCain comments five years ago..)