Joe Biden hits out at Donald Trump over alleged comments mocking US war dead

Kit Heren5 September 2020

Joe Biden has fiercely condemned comments allegedly made by Donald Trump mocking US troops who died in war.

President Trump has flatly denied reports this week that he called the American dead in the First World War "losers" and "suckers" in 2018.

Democratic presidential candidate Mr Biden branded Mr Trump’s alleged comments “deplorable.”

Mr Biden added: “I’ve just never been as disappointed, in my whole career, with a leader that I’ve worked with, president or otherwise.

Donald Trump
AP

"If the article is true — and it appears to be, based on other things he’s said — it is absolutely damning. It is a disgrace.”

He added that “the president should humbly apologise" to the families of American servicemen and women who have served in war, and to the families of those who have died.

Mr Biden's son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015, served in Kosovo and Iraq with the US military.

He added: "When my son was an assistant U.S. attorney and he volunteered to go to Kosovo when the war was going on, as a civilian, he wasn’t a sucker.

Joe Biden 
AP

“When my son volunteered to join the United States military as the attorney general, he went to Iraq for a year, won the Bronze Star and other commendations, he wasn’t a sucker!”

Two senior defence officials alleged that Mr Trump disparaged US soldiers who died in war during a meeting in Paris on November 10, 2018, according to the Atlantic magazine.

Mr Trump was due to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in the city but staff from the National Security Council and the Secret Service told Mr Trump that rainy weather made helicopter travel to the site risky.

When they suggested driving there instead, the president allegedly replied that he would rather not go at all because the cemetery was “filled with losers”.

The Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Paris
Getty Images

Mr Trump said the story is “totally false”. At the time the White House blamed the cancelled visit on poor weather.

The president denied ever making the comments on Friday: “It was a terrible thing that somebody could say the kind of things — and especially to me ’cause I’ve done more for the military than almost anyone anybody else.”

He told reporters his former chief of staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, might have been the source of the story.

He said: “It could have been a guy like John Kelly,” saying Mr Kelly “was unable to handle the pressure of this job.”

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