Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the left-wing organ The Atlantic, was beaten by the sister of the behind schedule Spc. Vanessa Guillen after quoting President Donald J. Trump belittling the slain soldier’s death and refusing to pay funeral expenses as promised.
“My sister’s death should never be politicized. Unbelievable,” said Mayra Guillen in an X-Post.
The specialist was reported missing from her duty station at Fort Hood, Texas in April 2020 and her remains were recovered on June 30, 2020.
The sister then quoted from The Atlantic’s own X-Post a more detailed explanation of her disgust with Goldberg.
“I don’t understand how you are using my sister’s death for politics – hurtful and disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members,” she said. “President Donald Trump has done nothing but show respect for my family and Vanessa. In fact, today I voted for President Trump.”
Wow.
I don’t understand how you’re exploiting my sister’s death for politics – hurtful and disrespectful to the vital changes she made for service members. President Donald Trump has done nothing but show respect to my family and Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today. https://t.co/o8cDrKOKBV— Mayra Guillen (@mguilen_) October 22, 2024
His article published today states: “Trump: “I need the kind of generals Hitler had.”“Goldberg claimed to have eyewitness accounts of a national security meeting at the White House on December 4, 2020, which was just ending when Trump was said to have asked whether the family had charged him for funeral costs – a promise he made had made to the family months earlier – and if so, what was the accusation:
According to participants and one participant’s contemporaneous notes about the meeting, an employee responded, “Yes, we received an invoice; The funeral cost $60,000.
Trump got angry. “It doesn’t cost $60,000 to bury that damn Mexican!” He turned to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and gave the order: “Don’t pay it!” Later that day, he was still upset. “Can you believe it?” he said, according to a witness. “Damn people trying to rip me off.”
Khawam, the family’s lawyer, told me she sent the bill to the White House, but the family never received any money from Trump. Some of the costs, Khawam said, were covered by the Army (which, she said, offered to have Guillén buried at Arlington National Cemetery), but others were covered by donations. Ultimately, Guillén was buried in Houston.
This is reminiscent of Goldberg’s infamous fable when he told his readers in a September 3, 2020 article: “Trump: Americans killed in war are “losers” and “suckers”” that Trump ridiculed fallen warriors when it was decided not to visit the Belleau Wood military cemetery in France during the centenary of the end of the First World War.
Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would be disheveled by the rain and because he did not believe it was important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day . Speaking to senior staff on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said: “Why would I go to that cemetery? It’s full of losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump called the more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood “suckers” for being killed.
A senior Army officer traveling with the president that day told RedState that the trip to Belleau Wood, sacred to the Marines, was canceled because helicopters were grounded due to bad weather.
Without a helicopter, the president and his entourage would be a slow-moving motorcade on country roads for 45 minutes, too wealthy a target to make available to an adversary – coupled with the fact that without a helicopter there would be no air rescue if something happened happened.
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg attempts to glorify Never Trumper Adam Kinzinger by once again avoiding the facts
The Atlantic hit article about Trump continues to collapse after a US ambassador with first-hand knowledge speaks out
Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, also supported Guillen’s account.
“I was involved in the discussions featured in the Atlantic’s latest hit article against President Trump. Let me say this: Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false,” the former Republican congressman from North Carolina said.
Trump was respectful at all times, he said.
“He was kind and gracious to the core and wanted to ensure that the military and the U.S. government did right by Vanessa Guillen and her family,” the former House Freedom Caucus chairman said.
I was involved in the discussions featured in the Atlantic’s latest hit article against President Trump. Let me say this.
Any claim that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false.
He was just genial, accommodating and…
— Mark Meadows (@MarkMeadows) October 22, 2024
RedState spoke with Ben Williamson, a senior White House aide to Meadows. Williamson said he gave Goldberg a statement that the Atlantic editor-in-chief intentionally distorted to fit his narrative—as seen in this side-by-side comparison of Williamson’s text and Goldberg’s prose:
Williamson told RedState that he did not attend the meeting, but Goldberg passed the statement in blue to Meadows.
Oddly enough, Goldberg took Williamson’s statement and wrote it as if it were a confirmation of what Trump supposedly said – only Meadows was out of earshot.
Update – 8:20 p.m. Eastern:
The family’s lawyer, Natalie Khawam, has now spoken out and completely trashed Goldberg’s claims.
After dealing with hundreds of reporters in my legal career, this is unfortunately the first time I have to go on the record with Jeffrey Goldberg@the Atlantic: He not only misrepresented our conversation, he outright lied in HIS sensational story.
More… https://t.co/uJtfsNTo37– Attorney Natalie Khawam (@WhistleblowerLF) October 22, 2024
After dealing with hundreds of reporters in my legal career, this is unfortunately the first time I have to go on the record with Jeffrey Goldberg@the Atlantic: He not only misrepresented our conversation, he outright lied in HIS sensational story. More importantly, he exploited my clients and the murder of Vanessa Guillen… for inexpensive political gain.
I would also like to point out that the timing of this “story” is quite suspicious since this alleged conversation Trump had took place over four years ago! Why a story about it now?!
As everyone knows, Trump not only supported our military, he also invited my clients to the Oval Office and also supported the “I am Vanessa Guillen” bill.
I am grateful that we were able to garner bipartisan support for the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act, and thanks to everyone’s challenging work and efforts, our military members now have greater protections and rights while serving our country.
Update – 9:05 p.m. Eastern:
Theo Wold, former deputy assistant to President Trump, who attended Trump’s meeting with the Guillén family “because [he] assisted with the translation” also publicly called Goldberg’s piece “a lie” in a post on X and wrote:
I was at President Trump’s meeting with the Guillén family because I helped translate that day. President Trump was sincerely concerned for Vanessa Guillén and appalled by the tragedy that the Guillén family experienced.
@mguilen_ Back then she was confident and confident in standing up for her sister, and today she is right again: the Atlantic hit is a lie. President Trump, for example, had no interest in the cameras at all. He met privately with the Guillén family for twenty minutes, offering to speak to the press only if it would help honor Army Specialist Guillén and raise awareness of her case. He even told them that day that the press were vipers.Boy, President Trump was right.
I was at President Trump’s meeting with the Guillén family because I helped translate that day.
President Trump was sincerely concerned for Vanessa Guillén and appalled by the tragedy that the Guillén family experienced.@mguilen_ was confident and confident in…
— Theo Wold (@RealTheoWold) October 22, 2024
