(NEXSTAR) — During Thursday night’s first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, several accusations came to the fore. But one exchange between the president and the former president caused one of the night’s most tense moments.
Near the end of the first 30 minutes, Biden claimed Trump previously verbally attacked and disrespected American veterans, particularly ones who were injured or died during combat.
“My son served in Iraq,” said Biden. “He lived next to burn pits. He came back with glioblastoma…. He [Trump] called veterans suckers and losers. My son was not a loser. He was not a sucker. YOU’RE the loser. YOU’RE the sucker.”
Trump immediately denied the comments, saying in part: “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. He [Biden] made that up. He put it in commercials. We had 19 people who said I didn’t say it.”
Despite his claims to the contrary, however, Trump’s own former chief of staff John Kelly previously confirmed Trump called dead veterans “suckers” back in 2018. Discussion of Trump’s comments also did feature in a Biden campaign video earlier this month, which Trump later said should be removed (though no action was ever taken).
In reference to the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, the Biden campaign released a one-minute video titled, “What Trump Thinks,” which also noted Trump’s previous mocking of late Sen. John McCain, who had been captured during the Vietnam War.
The “losers and suckers” comments were first revealed in a multi-source article from The Atlantic on Sept. 3, 2020. The article, “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers,’” laid out Trump’s 2018 canceled visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France. According to the Atlantic’s close sources, Trump canceled the visit claiming that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service would be unable to drive him there — the Atlantic reports neither statement were true.
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg instead reports that sources close to Trump said that the real reason for the trip’s cancellation was that Trump worried his hair would look bad in the rain and photos would be taken.
Trump reportedly said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
The Atlantic also reported that during a different exchange on the France trip, Trump called the Marines who died in the Battle of Belleau Wood “suckers.”