President Donald J. Trump waves at the conclusion of his remarks Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020, at the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum in Jupiter, Florida, on the Environmental Accomplishments for the People of Florida. (Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic who roiled the election with an article based on anonymous sources claiming President Trump denigrated the U.S. military now concedes that a key element of the story could be wrong.
The story by Jeffrey Goldberg began by claiming the president did not want to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018 because "his hair would become disheveled in the rain" and "he did not believe it important to honor American war dead."
The lede then set up the claim that Trump slandered war dead, referring to them as "suckers" and "losers."
But now Goldberg has admitted that his four, off-the-record, anonymous sources may not have been correct about the reason for calling off the visit.
In a CNN interview Sept. 4, the editor was confronted with the account in former national security adviser John Bolton’s book stating the inclement weather made a trip by helicopter too risky, and going by ground would take too long and pose other risks.
Goldberg conceded, "I'm sure all of those things are true."
On Twitter, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley noted that both Bolton and Pentagon sources "have confirmed that reason, and Goldberg says that that all may be true."
The differing accounts over Atlantic article have not changed many minds. The lack of movement by public opinion may not reflect an even split of support but, rather, a widespread view of both sides as equally unbelievable. https://t.co/LpIgY8OlRa
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) September 5, 2020
Goldberg has been saying he stands by the reporting, because he has "multiple sources saying this is what happened."
The president stated flatly it was not true: "I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes. There is nobody that respects them more. So, I just think it’s a horrible, horrible thing."
More than a dozen officials with first-hand knowledge have gone on the record, including critics of the president such as Bolton, saying the story's main claims are false.
Talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh on Friday featured a Political Insider report of Goldberg's interview.
Limbaugh noted the left has been targeting Trump since before he took office, but their record of the New York Times, MSNBC and others "is failure after failure after failure."
He wondered what "kind of talent does it take, what kind of training does it take to get excited over a lie every week?"
"Because they know this stuff is bogus. They know what their reporting is not true. There hasn’t been a single one of these allegations from colluding with Russia to this Ukraine stuff, the impeachment, all that. None of it, not a shred of it, has been true."
Limbaugh observed that Trump, meanwhile, "doesn’t act like anybody who’s guilty of anything."
"He’s having the time of his life. That rally last night in Michigan? Folks, the things that happened — the things that happened in that rally last night — prove the bond that Donald Trump has with his supporters, with his voters," Limbaugh said.
"There isn’t a politician in this country who has the kind of bond that Donald Trump has. Last night, his rally — which was another five-star rally — was interrupted when thousands and thousands of people began to shout, 'We love you! We love you!' Trump was taken aback. He told the crowd, 'You may not want to do that. You’re gonna make me cry, and that may not be good for my image.'
"He was joking. He was being humble. He has humility in spades, but his critics don’t see it. They think I’m nuts when I say he has it, but he is loaded with humility, And it was on full display at his rally in Michigan yesterday, last night. So Goldberg, Jeffrey Goldberg, admits that his four anonymous, off-the-record sources may not have been correct and that the visit that Trump was supposed to make to the cemetery, maybe it was called off ’cause of the weather."
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