President Trump on Saturday ripped Joe Biden for a campaign ad that cites a magazine’s report quoting anonymous sources who claim Trump disparaged dead American soldiers but said there is a silver lining: “Now I can be really vicious.”
“Pathetic Joe. He’s a pathetic human being to allow that to happen,” Trump said of the ad Biden’s campaign released last week.
“There’s nobody who loves our military, respects them more than me. There were 25 witnesses on the record that said it never happened,” Trump said, citing former and current staff members who said he never called dead soldiers “suckers” and “losers.” “They’re a disgrace, but you know the good part?” Trump said. “Now I can be really vicious. Once I saw that ad, I don’t have to be nice anymore.”
The president also claimed Biden, “doesn’t know he’s alive.” “Sleepy Joe Biden. You know where he is now? He’s in his damn basement again,” Trump said as the Nevada crowd of supporters laughed and cheered.
“Joe Biden cannot lead our country ’cause he doesn’t really believe in our country,” he said. “He is the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics.”
President Trump responds to Biden ad attacking him after Atlantic story: "You know the good part? Now I can be really vicious." pic.twitter.com/nOqxJ2tVOb
— The Hill (@thehill) September 13, 2020
The Trump campaign last week issued a cease-and-desist letter to the Biden campaign demanding the Democratic presidential candidate stop airing the ad, which Trump’s team calls “false and misleading.”
“The Atlantic article and the False and Misleading Ad both rely upon statements allegedly made by anonymous sources who were directly contradicted on the record by twenty-one individuals present with President Trump that day,” Trump Campaign Senior Legal Adviser Jenna Ellis wrote. “Additionally, the contemporary facts in the Secret Service record totally debunk this fake story.”
“Mr. Biden and the Biden Campaign should immediately cease and desist using the False and Misleading Ad and issue a public apology to the millions of service members whose morale Mr. Biden is attempting to damage by posting the False and Misleading Ad in the first place. The False and Misleading Ad presents unsubstantiated quotes by President Trump allegedly made in connection with a canceled official visit to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France. As stated above, numerous individuals who were with President Trump have gone on the record denying that President Trump made any such statements,” the letter said.
“Given your inability to verify the anonymous statements and the unequivocal denials by identified individuals who confirm what the whole country already knows – that President Trump would never disparage the lives and scarifies made by our American Military Heroes and their families – and President Trump’s powerful record of supporting and honoring America’s veterans, we demand that Joe Biden and the Biden Campaign immediately cease and desist using the False and Misleading Ad. We also ask Twitter and Facebook to review and apply their community standards equally and fairly and remove entirely the False and Misleading Ad from their platforms,” Ellis wrote.