Biden Lashed Out at 'Sucker' Trump Over Ex-Prez’s Remarks on Veterans: "My Son Wasn’t a Loser"
During CNN's 2024 presidential debate, Joe Biden slammed Donald Trump, calling him a 'sucker' and 'loser', quoting the former president's statements about slain US veterans against him. “I was recently in France for D-Day, and I spoke to all about those heroes that died. I went to the World War II cemetery — World War I cemetery he refused to go to,” Biden said, referencing Trump's alleged denial to visit the cemetery as president in 2018, as per The Hill.
“He was standing with his four-star general, and he told me, he said, ‘I don’t want to go in there, because they’re a bunch of losers and suckers,’” Biden said, referring to the comments made by John F. Kelly, who was Trump's White House chief of staff between 2017-19. Becoming visibly agitated and emotional, Biden snapped at the former president.
Trump: He made up the suckers and losers, so he should apologize to me right now
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 28, 2024
Biden: A four-star general standing by your side who was on your staff said you said it. Period. pic.twitter.com/KW68B9ml9N
“My son was not a loser. He’s not a sucker. You’re the sucker. You’re the loser,” he said, in reference to Beau Biden, Joe's oldest son who served in the Iraq War, and later passed after battling cancer for over 5 years. Trump pushed back against these claims on the debate stage. “First of all, that was a made-up quote, ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’ They made it up. It was in a third-rate magazine that’s failing, like many of these magazines,” Trump refuted.
BREAKING: Here is the clip where Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff admitted that Donald Trump called our Veterans “Suckers and Losers”. Spread it everywhere. pic.twitter.com/Fh851NnnVm
— Biden’s Wins (@BidensWins) June 28, 2024
The incumbent POTUS was referring to an article published in The Atlantic by Jeffery Goldberg, in September 2020, in which the former president postponed a trip to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 for reasons other than the weather, as Trump had previously said. “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” he allegedly remarked about the visit, the magazine claimed.
You’re the Loser, You’re the Sucker (Remix) feat. Joe Biden & Donald Trump #Electionhttps://t.co/SwWEvD1eTJ 🔊 🍿 pic.twitter.com/t4osLyNtLr
— Dj Suede the Remix god (@Remixgodsuede) June 28, 2024
Kelly verified the claims on record to CNN's Jake Tapper, who was the debate moderator but did not question Trump on the denial; this was a pattern observed throughout the debate. CNN's Tapper and Dana Bash, both veteran anchors, did not cut into fact-check, cross-question or even follow up on questions. As such, political analysts criticized the network, as per The Washington Post. “The absence of real-time fact-checking is the biggest failure of this debate,” Anthony Coley, a contributor for NBC News and MSNBC, said.
Trump even egregiously claimed that his opponents support abortion in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy — or 'after birth,' which is not a thing in any state. “How are none of the moderators fact-checking this post-birth abortion nonsense? That was a dumpster fire,” Kate Smith of Planned Parenthood, slammed.
CNN claimed debate moderators could still fact check "egregious" lies, but when Trump lied about calling military people suckers and losers, Jake Tapper never rebuked him - even though Tapper had done an entire segment on his CNN show about John Kelly confirming Trump said it. https://t.co/NVlYRdUsFP
— Ragnarok Lobster 🐺 (@eclecticbrotha) June 28, 2024
CNN's political director, David Chalian, claimed in a pre-debate interview with The Washington Post that the best time for fact-checking is after the debate and that CNN's journalists will be on top of it. Post the debate, anchor John King informed viewers that “Donald Trump broke the fact-check machine more than I can count tonight.”