President Biden visits the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery to pay his tribute to fallen US troopers of the World Battle I, in Belleau, Northern France, on June 9, 2024.
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BELLAU, France — President Biden on Sunday paid tribute to fallen U.S. Marines at an American cemetery outdoors of Paris, a resting place that options prominently in his case towards former President Donald Trump.
Greater than 2,200 Individuals who fought and died in World Battle I are buried within the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery. “Every Marine I know, knows about the Battle of Bellau Woods,” Biden advised reporters after a brief wreath-laying ceremony.
“More Marines were lost here than any battle until the middle of World War II. The idea that I come to Normandy and not make the short trip here to pay tribute…” Biden mentioned.
Trump had been scheduled to go to the cemetery in Nov. 2018, on the a hundredth anniversary of the tip of World Battle I. However he scrapped these plans. The White Home blamed the climate, saying it was too wet for helicopters to fly, and arguing {that a} motorcade would have been too disruptive for site visitors and the schedule.
A unique and far more damning story emerged two years later in The Atlantic, one which Biden usually highlights on the marketing campaign path to indicate that his predecessor shouldn’t be match to be commander in chief.
What The Atlantic mentioned occurred with Trump
The Atlantic mentioned Trump canceled the journey as a result of he didn’t need to get his hair moist within the rain, telling senior employees members “‘Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.’”
The journal mentioned that Trump individually referred to Marines who misplaced their lives within the Battle of Belleau Wooden as “‘suckers’ for getting killed.”
On the time the article got here out, the Trump marketing campaign strongly disputed its claims. Final yr, Trump’s then-chief of employees John Kelly confirmed a lot of it in an on-the-record assertion to CNN – an announcement that the Trump marketing campaign described as “debunked stories.”
Kelly final week advised NPR that Trump declined to go to the cemetery, so Kelly went with then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers Common Joe Dunford. A photograph of Kelly’s go to is on the cemetery web site: it was overcast, however no umbrellas had been seen.
John Kelly visits the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery on Nov. 10, 2018. Kelly, a retired U.S. Marine Corps normal, was chief of employees to then-President Donald Trump on the time.
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How Biden makes use of this story in his marketing campaign
At a latest marketing campaign cease in Scranton, Penn., Biden introduced up Trump’s snub of the Aisne-Marne cemetery.
“I have to say, there are a lot of things that Donald Trump has said and done that I find extremely offensive. But one that offends me the most is when he refused, as president, to visit an American cemetery outside of Paris when he was president,” Biden mentioned.
“He said that those soldiers who gave their lives were, quote — it was his quote — ‘suckers’ and ‘losers,’” Biden mentioned.
Over applause, Biden shouted: “Who does he think he is? These were heroes.”
Biden brings it up frequently, as he did at a fundraiser in New York earlier this week.
“This guy does not deserve to be president, whether or not I was running,” Biden mentioned.
President Biden pays tribute to fallen U.S. troopers of World Battle I in a wreath-laying ceremony on the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau, France, on June 9.
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What Biden mentioned — and did not say — in regards to the politics of this cease
At Aisne-Marne, Biden didn’t name-check Trump, and he pointedly didn’t reply a query about what message he was making an attempt to ship to voters by visiting the cemetery.
Biden has staked his marketing campaign on defending democracy and freedom – two themes that got here up so much throughout his official go to to France to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of D-Day, when U.S. and allied troops pushed into France in a battle that led to the tip of World Battle II.
He advised reporters on Sunday that he hoped Individuals would take away from his journey “the knowledge that the best way to avoid these kinds of battles in the future is to stay strong with our allies.”
“Do not break,” he mentioned. “Do not break.”
