Biden calls Trump's alleged comments about troops 'downright un-American'
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden slammed President Trump on Monday, saying his alleged comments about troops who died in combat were "downright un-American."
Multiple news organizations have reported that Trump privately called captured or fallen service members "losers" and "suckers;" Trump has denied making the disparaging remarks. While in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Labor Day, an emotional Biden said if this is how Trump talks about people who served in the military, "you have no business being president of the United States. Period."
Biden's son, Beau Biden, died of a brain tumor in 2015, after serving in Kosovo and Iraq as a member of the Delaware Army National Guard. "I'll tell you something: My Beau wasn't a loser or a sucker," Biden said. "He didn't serve with losers and suckers. He served with heroes. He served with American patriots. And none of the veterans you know were losers or suckers. No president has ever talked about our servicemen and women in that way."
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It shouldn't come as a surprise that Trump made such comments, Biden continued. Trump, he said, "only thinks about what's in it for him. Well, he'll never understand. He'll never understand you, he'll never understand us, he'll never understand our cops, our firefighters, because he's not made of the same stuff that the people who serve this nation are made of."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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