Biden Lights Into Trump for Reportedly Calling War Dead ‘Losers’

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden lit into President Donald Trump for his reported comments denigrating U.S. war dead as “losers” and “suckers,” and pledged that if elected he would show proper respect to military members and their families.

If the reports are true, Biden said, “it’s disgusting, and it affirms what most of us believe to be true: that Donald Trump is not fit to do the job of president, to be the commander in chief.”

Biden opened a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, about the jobs report issued Friday by criticizing Trump, who has denied making the remarks about the military.

“President Trump has demonstrated he has no sense of service, no loyalty to any cause other than himself,” Biden said.

“If I have the honor to be the next commander-in-chief, I will ensure that our American heroes know I’ll have their backs, honor their sacrifice, and those who are injured will be in military parades,” he continued, pounding his lectern.

The former vice president invoked his late son Beau Biden and his service in Iraq with the Army National Guard, saying that he was surely not a “sucker” for choosing to serve his country. “The servicemen and women he served with, particularly those did not come home, were not losers,” he said.

Biden also called for an apology from Trump. “If these statements are true, the president should humbly apologize to every Gold Star mother and father and every Blue Star family that he’s denigrated and insulted,” he said. “Who the heck does he think he is?”

He added that he’s “always cautioned not to lose my temper” and that his response to Trump’s reported comments “may be as close as I’ve come this campaign. It’s just a marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the president of the United States of America.”

Biden was responding to a report in The Atlantic, also reported by the Associated Press and the Washington Post, that said Trump had made several negative comments about veterans and the military since taking office, including those servicemen buried at a World War I cemetery in France.

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