September 4, 2020

Biden Blasts Trump for His History of Disrespecting the Military

Biden presents a diploma to a West Point graduate in 2016.Xinhua/Zuma

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Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday shot back at President Trump’s apparent disdain for American troops, calling his reported remarks about soldiers who died in battle “disgusting.”

Biden’s comments came in response to an explosive Atlantic article, published Thursday, that describes Trump referring to soldiers who were killed in battle as “losers,” excluding wounded veterans from military parades, and canceling a visit to an American cemetery near Paris because he was more concerned about the appearance of his hair on a rainy day than honoring the dead. Trump reacted, as usual, by attempting to discredit the media.

But Biden, speaking from a community center in Delaware, pointed out that Trump has repeatedly and irrefutably disparaged veterans in the past. “We’ve heard from his own mouth his characterizations of American hero John McCain as a loser in 2015,” Biden said, “and his dismissal of the traumatic brain injuries suffered by troops serving in Iraq as mere ‘headaches’ not too long ago.”

Biden also brought up his son Beau Biden’s military service, insisting that “when he went to Iraq for a year, won the Bronze Star and other commendations, he wasn’t a sucker.”

And Biden called attention to perhaps the most egregious insult to the military of all. “He stood by, failing to take action or even raise the issue of Vladimir Putin, while the Kremlin puts bounties on the heads of American troops in Afghanistan,” Biden said. “Quite frankly, if what is written in The Atlantic is true, it is disgusting. It affirms what most of us believe to be true—that Donald Trump is not fit to be the commander in chief.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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