Biden's hit on Trump over 'suckers' and 'losers' report backfires with independents: focus group
President Biden's attempts to attack former President Donald Trump over allegations he called military members "suckers and losers" appeared to backfire on the president, with independent voters part of a Fox News Digital focus group disapproving of what was said.
Biden slammed Trump over an Atlantic report that Trump had called military members who had died in battle "suckers" and "losers." Trump has repeatedly denied the report.
In the debate, Biden responded to claims by Trump that veterans were being left on the street while migrants are being allowed to stay in luxury hotels. Biden hit back at Trump over his remarks.
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"Every single thing he said is a lie. Every single one. For example, veterans are a hell of a lot better off since I passed the PACT Act. One million of them now have insurance and their families have it. Because what happened, whether it was Agent Orange or burn pits, they're all being covered now. And his group opposed that," Biden said.
"We're also in a situation where we have great respect for veterans. My son spent a year in Iraq living next to one of those burn pits, came back with stage four glioblastoma. I was recently in France from D-Day, and I spoke about those heroes that died. I went to the World War Two cemetery, World War I cemetery he refused to go to. He was standing with his four-star general, and [Trump] said, I don't want to go in there because they're a bunch of losers and suckers."
"My son was not a loser, was not a sucker. You're the sucker. You're the loser," he told Trump.
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But as Biden was speaking, the real-time approval from Fox News' Digital's focus group bottomed out from Republicans and independents, while remaining high for Democrats.
Trump said the phrase was not accurate.
"First of all, there was a made-up quote, suckers and losers. They made it up. It was in a third-rate magazine that's failing, like many of these magazines. He made that up. He put it in commercials. We've notified him. We had 19 people that said I didn't say it," he said.
As Trump spoke, approval from Republicans and Independents shot back up, while dropping for Democrats.