Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg said Wednesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that the “truth is the truth” in response to the Gold Star Family of Vanessa Guillén.
Host Jake Tapper said, “You begin you article with a story related to Donald Trump and Vanessa Guillén. Vanessa was a 20-year-old army private. She was murdered at Fort Hood. Trump invited her family to the Oval Office in July of 2020. He offered to pay for her funeral.”
He added, “We should note that Mark Meadows has denied this. Guillén sister posted on Twitter, ‘Wow, I don’t appreciate how you’re exploiting my sister’s death for politics. Hurtful and disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members.’ And she notes that she voted for Donald Trump. This is was yesterday. What’s your response to the pushback you’re getting?”
Goldberg said, “I mean on the Mark Meadows, that’s completely typical for this kind of thing. Obviously, Mark Meadows who also argues that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, I don’t consider Mark Meadows to be a credible source on these things.”
He added, “In terms of the sister, I understand why they’re hurt by this story, and I obviously feel very sorry as we all do for this family. But the fact remains when the family visited Donald Trump, as I note in the story, he said kind words and offered to pay for the funeral. Five months later when the subject came up, he had very unkind things to say about the funeral. I would note that he didn’t pay for the funeral. So again, I understand the sensitivities around this, but the truth is the truth. People in the meeting, people who had become somewhat inured to Donald Trump’s method of speaking were shocked by what was said and that’s how I learned about it.”
Tapper said, “Yeah and the detail about how ultimately he did not pay for the funeral is a story onto itself.”
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