The Atlantic, a radically far-leftist outlet, is facing backlash for running a blatant smear piece about former President Donald Trump.
In a report filed Tuesday, The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, a known fabulist, claimed among other things that after Trump consoled the family of 20-year-old Vanessa Guillén, an Army private who was murdered at Fort Hood in early 2020, he privately complained about paying for her funeral.
New, from me: https://t.co/OI5tjV8cfK
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) October 22, 2024
The alleged outburst occurred during a Dec. 4th, 2020 Oval Office meeting.
“At a certain point, according to two people present at the meeting, Trump asked, ‘Did they bill us for the funeral? What did it cost?’” Goldberg claimed in the piece. “According to attendees, and to contemporaneous notes of the meeting taken by a participant, an aide answered: Yes, we received a bill; the funeral cost $60,000.”
“Trump became angry. ‘It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f–king Mexican!’ He turned to his [then] chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and issued an order: ‘Don’t pay it!’ Later that day, he was still agitated. ‘Can you believe it?’ he said, according to a witness. ‘F–king people, trying to rip me off,’” he added.
Guillén is the daughter of Mexican immigrants.
Goldberg also alleged that the Guillén family’s attorney, Natalie Khawam, had later told them that Trump didn’t cough up any money for the funeral.
“Khawam, the family attorney, told me she sent the bill to the White House, but no money was ever received by the family from Trump,” he wrote. “Some of the costs, Khawam said, were covered by the Army (which offered, she said, to allow Guillén to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery) and some were covered by donations. Ultimately, Guillén was buried in Houston.”
There are just a few problems with this, namely that everybody involved in this fiasco has denied that any of this ever happened, starting with Khawam:
After having dealt with hundreds of reporters in my legal career, this is unfortunately the first time I have to go on record and call out Jeffrey Goldberg@the Atlantic: not only did he misrepresent our conversation but he outright LIED in HIS sensational story.
More… https://t.co/uJtfsNTo37— Attorney Natalie Khawam (@WhistleblowerLF) October 22, 2024
“After having dealt with hundreds of reporters in my legal career, this is unfortunately the first time I have to go on record and call out Jeffrey Goldberg@the Atlantic: not only did he misrepresent our conversation but he outright LIED in HIS sensational story,” she tweeted after the piece was published.
“More importantly, he used and exploited my clients, and Vanessa Guillen’s murder… for cheap political gain. I would like to also point out that the timing of this ‘story’ is quite suspicious, as this supposed conversation that Trump had would have occurred over 4 years ago! Why a story about it now?!” she added.
“As everyone knows, not only did Trump support our military, he also invited my clients to the Oval Office and supported the I Am Vanessa Guillen bill too. I’m grateful we were successful in getting bipartisan support of the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act, and because of everyone’s hard work and efforts our service members now have more protections and rights while serving our country,” she concluded.
Meadows has also denied the piece’s veracity:
I was in the discussions featured in the Atlantic’s latest hit piece 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.
He was nothing but kind, gracious, and…
— Mark Meadows (@MarkMeadows) October 22, 2024
Next up is Guillén’s own sister, Mayra.
“Wow. I don’t appreciate how you are exploiting my sister’s death for politics – hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members,” she tweeted after the piece was published. “President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today.”
Look:
Wow.
I don’t appreciate how you are exploiting my sister’s death for politics- hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members. President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today. https://t.co/o8cDrKOKBV— Mayra Guillen (@mguilen_) October 22, 2024
Last up is former Trump Deputy Assistant Theo Wold, who assisted in translating when Trump met with and consoled the Guillén family.
“President Trump was genuinely concerned about Vanessa Guillén and appalled by the tragedy the Guillén Family were enduring,” Wold wrote in a tweet Tuesday. “[Mayra Guiellén] was poised and confident in advocating for her sister then and she’s right again today: The Atlantic hit piece is a lie.”
“For example, President Trump had zero interest in the cameras. He met with the Guillén family privately for twenty minutes and offered the press gaggle solely if it would assist them in honoring Army Specialist Guillén and raising awareness about her case. He even told them that day that the press are vipers. Boy was President Trump right,” he added.
Look:
I was at President Trump’s meeting with the Guillén family because I assisted with translation that day.
President Trump was genuinely concerned about Vanessa Guillén and appalled by the tragedy the Guillén Family were enduring.@mguilen_ was poised and confident in…
— Theo Wold (@RealTheoWold) October 22, 2024
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