#Trump accuses Democrats, ‘Fake News Media’ of joining forces to spread lies

Enlarge Image

President Donald Trump speaks with members of the media
AP

President Trump on Sunday accused the Democrats of being in cahoots with the “Fake News Media” to conduct a false information campaign about him in the run-up to this November election, following reports that he disparaged America’s war dead.

“The Democrats, together with the corrupt Fake News Media, have launched a massive Disinformation Campaign the likes of which has never been seen before. They will say anything, like their recent lies about me and the Military, and hope that it sticks,” the president wrote on Twitter.

“But #MAGA gets it!” he said, referring to his Make American Great Again supporters.

The president and White House officials have adamantly denied the allegations made in a report by The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg last week.

The article claimed Trump referred to marines killed in World War I and buried in a cemetery outside Paris as “losers” and called the 1,800 marines who died in the battle of Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

“This is more made up Fake News given by disgusting & jealous failures in a disgraceful attempt to influence the 2020 Election!” Trump said.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie on Sunday defended the commander-in-chief.

“Have you ever heard the president disparage U.S. service members or veterans?” Wilkie was asked on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Absolutely not. And I would be offended too if I thought it was true,” he said. “Again, I think anonymous are the same people that brought you fake heart attacks, fake strokes, Russian collusion. So I am very proud that this president has led to a renaissance at Veterans Affairs.”

Host Dana Bash pressed Wilkie on how he could be certain when he wasn’t with the president when he is accused of making the remarks during a visit to France in 2018 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

“What I am looking at is the Donald Trump that I know, the Donald Trump who has turned around Veterans Affairs from a place that in the Obama administration was 16 out of 17 in terms of best places to work. We’re now up to six,” he said.

Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who served in the Obama administration, gave Trump the benefit of the doubt but wished the sources for the claims had allowed their names to be used.

“If they’re real, it’s beneath the dignity of any commander-in-chief. Truly, they’re despicable,” he said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday.

“He’s on-the-record with saying things himself over the past few years, and that makes the credibility of this article, and those anonymous comments, more and more credible,” Hagel said.