Kayleigh McEnany storms off after blasting media over Trump's 'suckers' scandal: 'No one loves servicemen more'
With the controversy over President Donald Trump’s alleged disrespect shown towards the fallen American warriors snowballing, a number of voices have come up defending him. On Friday, September 4, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany ripped into the media over the report against Trump saying “no one loves and cares” the servicemen and women more than the commander-in-chief.
Signing off her speech in the press briefing before walking off without taking any question, McEnany said: “Here is the one truth: No one, and I mean no one, loves and cares for our servicemen and women more than President Donald J. Trump.” She recalled the instance where the president met a military dog Conan which was a part of the team that nailed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in Syria late last year.
According to a recent report by the Atlantic that shocked many, Trump trashed the idea of visiting the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018 because he did not think it was worthy enough to honor Americans who died in the Battle of Belleau Wood (June 1918) in the First World War (1914-18). The report said that Trump cited rain for the decision, saying the “helicopter couldn’t fly” and the Secret Service couldn’t drive him to the spot. But also cited four persons familiar with the matter to say that the president feared his hair would be ruined in the rain beside the fact that the fallen warriors did not deserve a visit. “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to over 1,800 marines who lost their lives in the battle as “suckers” for getting killed. The US faced major casualties in the battle in which the Allied forces comprising the Americans, French and British troops defeated the Germans.
McEnany blasted the Atlantic report, as did Trump on Friday in a tweet in which he called the magazine “dying”, and cited a number of presidential events and photo-ops with troops, including his meeting with Conan at the White House last November where he honored the Belgian Malinois for its bravery.
The Atlantic Magazine is dying, like most magazines, so they make up a fake story in order to gain some relevance. Story already refuted, but this is what we are up against. Just like the Fake Dossier. You fight and and fight, and then people realize it was a total fraud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020
McEnany cites instances where Trump met war veterans, their families and injured soldiers
McEnany, who took over in April, also mentioned a remark from Derek Lyons, counselor to Trump, who said: “He was extremely disappointed that arrangements could not be made to get him to the site and that the trip had been canceled.” She also came up with a heavily redacted document from a Marine official saying the weather was bad for Trump’s scheduled flight in November 2018 and slammed “cowardly anonymous sources who probably do not even exist”. Trump has also met injured soldiers at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
While mentioning Trump's meetings with war veterans at different points of time, McEnany spoke about a World War II veteran who flew with the president on a helicopter in Normandy France. She also spoke about “visits the president had with our wounded warriors, special ops teams who came to the Oval Office, including the team that got [Abu bakr] Al-Baghdadi, and they brought along C the dog as well”.
“He met with families at the Army-Navy game. He does this routinely,” she said, adding: “At the World Series, when he got an opportunity to go watch the Nationals, he brought veterans with him,' McEnany continued.
“I've also seen him just a day before this article came up - talk about how there was random lightning popping around and he said, "I want to go out there and I want to talk to our World War II veterans”. 'This is America's greatest generation and the president holds them in the highest of regards,” McEnany, who is known to be a Trump sympathizer even before becoming the press secretary, said.
McEnany’s reaction came as the White House was fiercely fighting back against the repercussions of the report that came up just two months ahead of the embattled president’s re-election bid.
This is the second time in a few months that Trump has been accused of ignoring or insulting the American military. In June, it was reported that Trump did nothing despite the Russians offering money to Taliban extremists to kill American troops deployed in Afghanistan, leading to a massive backlash.