Speaking from the White House Friday afternoon, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said a story published in The Atlantic Magazine overnight is "quite clearly fake news" and laid out evidence to prove it.
In the story, which was written by Jeffery Goldberg, President Trump is accused of skipping a trip to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery outside of Paris in 2018 because the 1800 U.S. Marines who died there were "suckers" for "getting killed." The piece also claims the President was lying about a bad weather call that cancelled the trip.
While the piece only used anonymous sources, nearly a dozen current and former government officials have gone on the record to state the story is false. Further, official government emails about the visit being called off due to bad weather and logistical issues, have been published by the White House.
"The story in The Atlantic has been categorically debunked by eye witnesses and contemporaneous documents," Trump said. "Behind me you will see an email from one of the President's miliary aids that clearly reads, 'We are a bad weather call for today's lift.' The Atlantic reporting is based on four, cowardly anonymous sources who probably do not even exist. Meanwhile within hours 10 sources, 10, went on the record debunking these lies, eight with first hand knowledge stating on the record one common truth, that this story is false. It never happened," McEnany said, adding testimony from two additional military officers that the story is not true. "Why would a publication abandon all journalistic integrity and publish this story? It's because the liberal activists at The Atlantic are uninteresting in the truth and they are only interested in peddling conspiracy laden propaganda because this is the one truth, no-one and I mean no-one, loves and cares for our servicemen and women as much as Donald J. Trump."
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After making her statement, McEnany left the briefing room without taking questions.
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