The Atlantic’s Goldberg stands by latest anti-Trump story despite many on-the-record denials
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic, is sticking to his latest story in which he claims former President Donald Trump rudely refused to pay for the funeral of Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen after initially offering to cover the expenses. Multiple people affiliated with the story went on the record to deny the allegations against Trump.
Guillen was killed in 2020 by a soldier she worked with. Guillen’s death became a nationwide story after her family members jumped into action when a military investigation into her initial disappearance was severely mishandled.
Goldberg alleges that Trump became enraged when he found out the cost of the funeral in December 2020:
‘It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f***ing Mexican!’ He turned to his 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***ing people, trying to rip me off.’
Goldberg’s story was met with a flurry of denials, most importantly from Meadows. Guillen’s family and attorney also said the story does not match their experience with Trump.
‘Treat this dishonest piece accordingly.’
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Goldberg was asked what he thought about the denials.
“I don‘t make much of them at all. The sister wasn‘t in the meeting. The lawyer for the family wasn‘t in the meeting. Mark Meadows was in the meeting. Kash Patel was in the meeting. A whole bunch of other senior officials were in the meeting. I have sources who are sitting in that meeting. I have contemporaneous notes taken by participants in that meeting that describe exactly what I described in the story,” said Goldberg.
Goldberg pointed to his poorly sourced “suckers and losers” story from 2020 as an example of why he has creditability this time around.
“So it‘s not surprising that Mark Meadows is going to deny it, but the denial doesn‘t hold weight. I have contemporaneous sources, contemporaneous notes from that meeting. [Trump] said it. It also tracks with everything that we know about the way he speaks,” he insisted.
Patel likewise denied the allegations about Trump.
Ben Williamson, a spokesman for Meadows, showed how the Atlantic twisted the denial to make it seem less credible.
“I sent … a comment saying President Trump ‘absolutely did not say that,’ referring to the alleged comments about Ms. Guillen they printed. … Atlantic translated that comment to ‘didn’t hear Trump say it.’ Treat this dishonest piece accordingly,” he said, showing a screenshot of the statement he sent.
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