President Joe Biden met with voters in Columbia, South Carolina, on Saturday evening. He used the occasion to scream the lie that President Donald J. Trump rejected a visit to a World War I military graveyard in France because, Biden claimed, he couldn’t care less about those buried there.
“Donald Trump, when he was Commander-in-Chief, refused to visit a cemetery — U.S. cemetery outside of Paris for fallen American soldiers. And he referred to those heroes, and I quote, as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers,’” Biden said. He then yelled uncontrollably: “He actually said that! He said that! How dare he say that? How dare he talk about my son and all [inaudible] like that?”
A river of lies rolled out of Biden’s mouth. And he knew it.
I spent Labor Day weekend 2020 indoors, chained to my computer, writing article after article in order to dismantle Jeffrey Goldberg’s lie-filled fantasy in the Atlantic about this imaginary episode. Even more wildly, Goldberg baselessly asserted that Trump avoided the cemetery “because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain.”
In fact, Trump wanted to lay a wreath at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery on Nov. 10, 2018. However, rain and a low cloud ceiling endangered helicopter travel there.
Driving to the cemetery was a no go. As I learned during a July 2020 diplomatic mission with then–National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien, the 90-minute ride along tight, winding rural roads between Paris and Château-Thierry would have been too slow and congested for a presidential entourage, especially in an emergency.
So, the cemetery visit got scratched, to Trump’s frustration.
Then-President Donald Trump at the American Commemoration Ceremony at Suresnes American Cemetery, Nov. 11, 2018 (Shealah Craighead/The White House)
However, the next day, Trump honored some 1,500 war dead at the Suresnes American Cemetery, closer to Paris. As NBC News reported, Trump delivered remarks “under a steady rain without an umbrella,” with no overriding concern for his hair. Later, beneath an umbrella, Trump walked alone among the tombstones.
Goldberg limply offered four anonymous sources for his fake “story.”
In contrast, at least 11 named members of Trump’s Paris team back his version of events. So does an email from an unidentified military aide. So do weather data. Trump’s next-day agenda also discredits Goldberg’s synthetic tale.
First lady Melania Trump was in Paris with her husband. She corroborated the truth: Bad weather, not her husband’s alleged selfishness, ruined the Aisne-Marne trip. I cited her and quoted, by name, these 10 aides who were in France with Trump: John Bolton, Johnny DeStefano, Zach Fuentes, J. Hogan Gidley, Jordan Karem, Derek Lyons, Stephen Miller, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Dan Scavino, and Dan Walsh. They all agree that Goldberg’s “news” was fake.
A 5:59 a.m. email from a “United States Marine Corps Military Aide to the President,” whose name was redacted, said, “We are a BAD WX call for today’s lift,” referring to bad weather.
A WeatherBELL Analytics meteorological report confirmed these conditions.
And Trump’s public schedule indicates that he could have flown home that Nov. 11 about 1 p.m. local time. But rather than doze off in luxury on Air Force One, Trump spent another two and a half hours in Paris so that he could stand in a downpour and salute the dead American veterans whom Goldberg claimed Trump disrespected.
Regarding sources, the score is Trump 14, Goldberg 4.
How dare Biden terrify America’s beloved veterans with this grotesque pile of lies as high as the Eiffel Tower?
Biden also asked Palmetto State voters, “How dare he [Trump] talk about my son and all [slurred speech] like that?”
This may shock Joe Biden, but unlike those who rest in peace at Aisne-Marne, Beau Biden did not die during World War I. The president’s late son passed away on May 30, 2015 — nearly 97 years after the Great War ended.
The younger Biden did not die in combat, either. Beau Biden succumbed to brain cancer at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He was just 46. His untimely death was unfair, painful, and tragic. May he rest in peace.
Nevertheless, how dare Biden seek political advantage by abusing Beau Biden’s memory and lying, once again, that his son died in battle when, in fact, he expired in a hospital bed?
The man who promised to unite America divides America, yet again, between Left and Right and, now, veterans vs. non-veterans. This despicable man should be ashamed of himself. Alas, that requires an emotion that Joe Biden buried years ago.
Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor.
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