Coronavirus
Floor Speech
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Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise to express my strong support for the Senate resolution sponsored by Senator Duckworth, which condemns the denigration by President Trump of our Nation's Armed Forces and veterans. I also want to commend Senator Duckworth for her extraordinary and heroic service as an Army aviator. She inspired all of us with her courage and her sacrifice.
In a September 3 article in The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg catalogued a list of disparaging comments President Trump has made about members of the U.S. military and wounded warriors. Such remarks are not unusual for this President, and most are public knowledge. However, we should not become numb to such behavior, so some of the comments bear repeating.
The Atlantic article states that the President refused to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France, the final resting place of 2,289 Americans who died in battle, ensuring our freedom and the freedom of our allies against the march of totalitarianism, authoritarianism, fascism, and communism over the past century. He refused to visit because he said the cemetery was filled with ``suckers and losers.''
Several years ago, in planning a military parade to honor himself, he refused to include wounded war veterans, stating ``no one wants to see that.'' When he visited the grave of Gen. John Kelly's son who died in Afghanistan at the age of 29 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, he wondered to General Kelly why his son joined the Marines: ``What was in it for him?''
When impressed by a presentation by Gen. Joe Dunford, then the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he asked his staff why such a talented person would join the military.
Donald Trump is a man who cannot conceive of service to others before oneself. His view of the world is transactional. The only thing of value to him is money--not ideals or principles or the lives of our fellow Americans. He simply doesn't understand the words of one of his predecessors, President George Herbert Walker Bush, who said:
On this day, we must tell the stories of those who fought and died in freedom's cause. We must tell their stories because those who've lost loved ones need to know that a grateful Nation will always remember. We must tell their stories so that our children and grandchildren will understand what our lives might have been like had it not been for their sacrifice.
Donald Trump does not think deeply about what it means to be in the military; to be deployed in a battle zone, wondering if every day would be your last day; to be a family member waiting anxiously at home; to be a young, healthy person suddenly disabled or a Gold Star family who wakes every day, mourning their lost son or daughter but understanding the great cause they died for. Donald Trump only cares about the next ``win'' for himself, his fortune, or his popularity.
Donald Trump deferred service in Vietnam five times, including one deferment for a diagnosis of ``bone spurs,'' which is remarkable, given the propensity he has to play golf, given such a debilitating injury. He has said that those who served in Vietnam were ``suckers'' for not finding a way out, never able to acknowledge that his privilege of birth and race were largely responsible for being able to avoid service in that war.
Furthermore, President Trump, true to his character, has doubled down and denigrated the military service of past Presidents and military officers, including, as has been referred to repeatedly, Senator John McCain, my close colleague on the Armed Services Committee and my chairman.
He referred to Senator McCain as a ``loser'' when he died and wondered why the Nation should honor him with flags lowered to half- staff. He said he prefers those who were never captured in war. He would prefer those who never served to a man like Senator McCain, who survived over 5 years in a Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp, who refused to leave his comrades behind when given the chance, and who endured well-chronicled torture and humiliation that made him an inspiration to so many. In fact, one of the most moving moments in my life was to be in the Hanoi Hilton with John McCain and to have Senator McCain talk about the torture, the humiliation, and the degradation that he endured each day but maintained his courage and his commitment to this Nation.
The President also does not understand the good order and discipline that are the hallmark of a military in a democracy, ensuring that our military men and women remain firmly tethered to our Nation's moral and ethical principles in the most demanding wartime environments. That is why he saw nothing wrong with intervening in the legal process to pardon a servicemember accused of war crimes. That is why he was able to stand on the steps of the White House and make comments intended to drive a wedge between the men and women in uniform--the junior officers who enlisted and their senior leaders--impugning the motives of senior military officers who have dedicated their lives to the service of the country and who have bled, in some cases, for this country.
Never in this Nation's history has a President held the military and those who served in such disdain and disregard--never. His support for the military is hollow. He touts pay raises that were scheduled to happen anyway and congressional increases in defense spending for readiness which he then diverts to build an ill-advised and wasteful wall on the southern border. He falls short in caring for our men and women in uniform and their well-being and lives--and thinks instead of how they might be useful to him to further his own interests and image.
Donald Trump cannot relate to those who serve in the Armed Forces or understand what would motivate them to choose the harder road of a life of service, of discomfort, and the arduous experience to defend this Nation.
While I know that every American, especially those in uniform, listens to the words of the President, it is my fervent hope that our uniformed personnel do not take the President's words on this issue to heart. As a person who has had the privilege to have led paratroopers, I can tell you there is no greater honor to be among those who serve and protect our Nation, who sacrifice every day so that Americans can live in freedom and peace.
As President Theodore Roosevelt famously said:
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, if he wins, knows the thrills of high achievement, and, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.
I guess President Trump would say ``the losers.''
Our men and women in uniform, who fight, die, and are wounded for our Nation and its ideals, are in the arena, not President Trump. As all other public servants who are trying to make our country a better place, they--particularly those in uniform--deserve all the credit. A President who is proud that he has always stood on the sidelines and denigrates them does not deserve much credit.
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