Two Gold Star families from Bedford, Massachusetts, are condemning comments President Donald Trump reportedly made disparaging soldiers killed in action.
The parents of Private First Class John Hart and Lance Corporal Travis Desiatospoke at a press conference Thursday near the bridge in Bedford that was dedicated to their memory in 2018. Both servicemen were killed in combat in Iraq.
"We, the Harts and the Desiatos, are outraged and offended, but more deeply saddened, that the President called them losers and suckers," said Joe Desiato, Travis' father.
The article published last week in The Atlantic describes Trump refusing to visit in 2018 a cemetery near Paris where American soldiers who died in World War I are buried.
“Why should I go to that cemetery?" Trump is quoted as saying, according to four unnamed sources. "It’s filled with losers."
The article also quotes Trump deriding Americans who have died in battle as "suckers."
NPR has not verified the contents of The Atlantic story, though other outlets have corroborated parts of the magazine's reporting.
The president says the story is untrue, calling it a "total lie" and a “hoax.”
The families of John Hart and Travis Desiato said they don't believe Trump's denials.
"Just as John and Travis answered the call to fight for this country, we are here to answer the call to fight for the memories of John and Travis," Joe Desiato said. "Even if the person who leveled the attack is our own president."
"If Trump doesn't respect our military personnel and our wounded veterans, how can we trust him with the health and welfare of ordinary citizens?" asked Alma Hart, the mother of John Hart, who died in 2003.
The Atlantic article also described a visit Trump paid to Arlington National Cemetery in 2017 with John Kelly, who was then Secretary of Homeland Security and would later be named the White House chief of staff. The two visited the grave of Kelly's son, Robert, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. The story quotes Trump as saying to Kelly, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
The Atlantic story's author, Jeffrey Goldberg, says Kelly declined to comment for the story, and Kelly has refused to speak on the subject since the bombshell article was published.
On Thursday, Alma Hart called on Kelly and the anonymous sources in the story to speak publicly about what they know about Trump's comments.
"General John Francis Kelly, we need you to lead once again. Do not take counsel of your fears," Hart said. "President Trump cheats the system of checks and balances because he is surrounded with self-serving enablers."
The press conference also included harsh words for the president from State Rep. Ken Gordon, State Sen. Michael Barrett and U.S. Rep Seth Moulton, who served four tours of duty in Iraq with the Marines.
"Travis and John are American heroes, true American patriots, because they know what it means to serve," Moulton said. "Donald Trump doesn't get that at all. He does not understand what it means to serve your country. He thinks you're a sucker if you do. He doesn't understand what it means to give your life for the idea of America, for the freedoms and values our country stands for. He thinks you're a loser if you do."
Moulton urged Americans not to listen to Trump's denials and defenders.
"Just make sure that you exercise the freedoms that John and Travis preserved," he said. "The most fundamental freedom of which is to vote."
