Former national security adviser John Bolton is denying the claim that President Donald Trump disparaged American soldiers killed in France.
Bolton made his remarks on the Fox News show, “The Story with Martha MacCallum” on Monday. The Atlantic had reported that Trump had called those service members “losers” and “suckers.”
Trump had canceled a 2018 trip to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France because of the weather and not because of any disdain for the dead soldiers, Bolton noted.
"According to what that article said, the president made disparaging remarks about our soldiers and people buried in (the cemetery) in connection with the decision for him not to go to the ceremony that was planned that afternoon, and that was simply false," he said.
"I don't know who told the author that, but that was false."
And Bolton added: "The main issue was whether or not weather conditions permitted the president to go out to the cemetery.”
Bolton’s comments came after Trump had called him a “jerk” and a “wacko” in a Monday tweet for criticizing “love letters” from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Trump had tweeted: “Just heard that Wacko John Bolton was talking of the fact that I discussed ‘love letters from Kim Jong Un’ as though I viewed them as just that. Obviously, was just being sarcastic. Bolton was such a jerk!”
Meanwhile, the president has strongly denied The Atlantic’s claim that he disparaged the fallen dead at the cemetery. "Only an animal would say things like that," Trump said Monday.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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