Former Vice President Joe Biden reacted to Donald Trump’s statements, as reported in The Atlantic and elsewhere, that American troops, including those killed in action, are “suckers” and “losers.”
The video below is worth watching in its entirety. It should be seen by every military family in the U.S.
As reported in the New York Times and elsewhere:
A visibly angry Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Friday lashed President Trump over reporting that Mr. Trump had made extraordinarily disrespectful remarks about fallen soldiers, saying that such words would confirm that the Republican is unfit to serve as commander-in-chief. [...]
“If what is written in The Atlantic is true, it’s disgusting,” Mr. Biden said in remarks he delivered in a gymnasium a short drive from his home. “It affirms what most of us believe to be true: that Donald Trump is not fit to be commander in chief.” [...]
A palpably outraged Mr. Biden, who noted at times he was trying to keep his language in check in an effort to strike a presidential tone, spoke in strikingly personal terms on Friday about his son’s service. With barely concealed fury, he said that Beau Biden “wasn’t a ‘sucker.’ The servicemen and women he served with, particularly those who did not come home, were not ‘losers.’” [...]
“It is sick,” he said at another point. “It is deplorable. It is so un-American. It is so unpatriotic.”
TalkingPoints Memo also has excerpts from Biden’s speech, and comments made to reporters afterward:
“Let me be real clear, when my son was an Assistant U.S. Attorney and he volunteered to go to Kosovo while the war was going on as a civilian, he wasn’t a sucker. When my son volunteered and joined the United States military as the attorney general and went to Iraq for a year, won the bronze star and other commendations, he wasn’t a sucker,” he said. “The servicemen and women he served with, particularly those who did not come home, were not losers. If these statements are true, the President should humbly apologize to every Gold Star mother and father and every Blue Star family that he’s denigrated and insulted. Who the heck does he think he is?” [...]
“These folks are the backbone of America,” Biden said. “They’re the heart, the soul, the grit. That’s what patriotism is about. I’ve probably—I’ve just never been as disappointed in my whole career with a leader that I’ve worked with, President or otherwise,” Biden said that if the article is true—as it appears to be based on comments the President has made— “it is absolutely damnable. It is a disgrace.”
Yes, it is.
