As we reported, after The Atlantic ran a hit piece about what President Donald Trump supposedly said in a meeting about a murdered soldier in 2020, the soldier’s sister, the family attorney, and multiple people who were involved called out the story and/or debunked it.
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The soldier’s sister Mayra Guillen tweeted against the article, accusing them of exploiting her sister.
Then she went on Fox News and said she was misled about the article. When she found out what it was going to be about, she said she told them that she didn’t wish her sister’s name to be a part of it, but they disregarded what she said and published it anyway.
Now, the author of the article and the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, made an appearance on CNN and claimed to “feel very sorry” for the family.
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“In terms of the — the sister, I underst and why they’re hurt by — by this story, and I — I obviously feel very sorry as we all do for this family, but the fact remains when the family visited Donald Trump, as I note in the story, he said kind words and offered to pay for the funeral. Five months later, when the subject came up, he had very unkind things to say about the funeral, and I would note that he didn’t pay for the funeral. So, again, I understand the sensitivities around this, but the truth is the truth and people in the meeting — people who had become somewhat inured to Donald Trump’s method of speaking were shocked by what was said and — and that’s how I learned about it.”
Yeah, this is gross, especially after the family and people in the meeting have already debunked this and he has no named source regarding the comment about Vanessa Guillen. He’s supposedly writing about disregard for a Gold Star family, yet he’s disregarding them in the process.
It was reported in Oct. 2020 that the military was taking care of the funeral because her death was designated in the line of duty, entitling the family to benefits. Trump had said he would pay, if there needed to be anything paid.
As we noted the family attorney called out Goldberg saying he “lied” in the story and pointed to the interesting timing of this story now (right before the election).
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Khawam and Mayra Guillen were also on Fox and lit into him.
Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who was in the meeting, said it never happened. His staffer Ben Williamson said his email regarding Meadows’ response to the question was misrepresented in the article.
As to the former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly’s claims in the story, Matt Vespa at our sister site Townhall observed that it’s interesting they want to pull out these claims now right before the election. Yet Kelly went on working for Trump. That doesn’t help the problems in this story.
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Then former Sec. of Defense Mark Esper said he never heard things like what Kelly was saying.
No one is buying these October Surprises.