Trump hits 'disinformation', loss of 'journalistic integrity'

FPI / September 8, 2020

The Atlantic abandoned "journalistic integrity" in running with a report in which anonymous sources claimed President Donald Trump had disparaged American soldiers while on a trip abroad, Trump 2020 campaign Press Communications Director Erin Perrine said.

It’s “really clear that The Atlantic sources are lying,” Perrine said in an interview on Fox News's "Media Buzz",

The Atlantic, citing four anonymous sources, reported that during a 2018 visit to Paris to commemorate the end of World War I, Trump called American soldiers "losers" and "suckers."

Perrine cited current and former administration officials who have gone on the record to debunk the article.

“There's White House emails that prove that this story is false and you have eight people of the 10 that have gone on the record with direct, firsthand knowledge,” she said. “These aren't sources. These are people who were really there and are out there saying that this is false.”

“I think it's pretty clear here that journalism was abandoned, that journalistic integrity has to be in question here when you have four off-the-record, anonymous sources who are trying to hide their identities instead of standing up to level such disgusting accusations against the president of the United States,” Perrine said.

Perrine told the American public to "look at what the president does."

"You don't need anonymous sources," she said. "Look at the man's actions, look at the way he is when he goes to Walter Reed, the way he is when he is at Dover welcoming the bodies home of our fallen members, the work he has done to reform the Veterans Administration."

"It is a commander in chief proud of his troops," she said.

Trump tweeted on Sunday: “The Democrats, together with the corrupt Fake News Media, have launched a massive Disinformation Campaign the likes of which has never been seen before. They will say anything, like their recent lies about me and the Military, and hope that it sticks... But #MAGA gets it!”

In a Sept. 4 address to the media, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said The Atlantic's article was "fake news" that had been "categorically debunked by witnesses and contemporaneous documents."



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