Lip Reader Tells Us What Trump Muttered During Fight With Biden Over Service Members
The first 2024 debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a bit of a nightmare for all parties involved. The politicians bickered and made fools of themselves while many Americans watching couldn't help but think, "These two are our options?" One interesting moment occurred when Biden brought up Trump's alleged affair with Stormy Daniels, and the List spoke to a body language expert on the meaning of Trump's reaction. At another point in the debate, Biden highlighted Trump's refusal to attend a war memorial for fallen soldiers. In a clip from the debate shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, Biden referenced his late son Beau when he said, "[Trump] was standing with a four-star general and he told him, he said, 'I don't wanna 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."
While Biden was talking, Trump's mouth moved and he shook his head, but with his mic cut off, viewers didn't know what he said. Lip reader Nicola Hickling gave us some insight into Trump's reaction. According to her, Trump muttered, "Did I?"
"You're sucker and you're the loser"
JOE BIDEN JUST CALLED TRUMP A SUCKER 😭😭pic.twitter.com/hlgzosRzzd
— DramaAlert (@DramaAlert) June 28, 2024
Biden didn't just pull the example out of thin air. The fiery exchange referenced a story that broke in The Atlantic in September 2020. According to the report, then-President Trump canceled a 2018 visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial in France. President Biden clearly didn't forget the reason why.
Why was Trump's visit to a memorial in France canceled?
The majority of the soldiers buried at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial are Marines who died fighting in World War I. The official reason for Donald Trump's cancellation of the cemetery visit was the rain supposedly hindered travel conditions, but insiders said otherwise. According to The Atlantic, four sources claim Trump didn't want to mess up his hair in the weather. He also reportedly said, "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers." He supposedly called the Marines "suckers" during that trip as well. Joe Biden's slight misquote at the 2024 debate seemed to be due to him paraphrasing Trump's quotes from The Atlantic.
Although CNN reported in 2020 that Trump denied making the disparaging remarks, a member of his administration confirmed the statements to the outlet.
The presidential debate wasn't the first time Biden mentioned Trump's remarks. While speaking to reporters in April 2024, Biden laid into the former president, per USA Today: "To me, that is such a disqualifying assertion made by a president — 'suckers' and 'losers.'" In June 2024, a few weeks prior to the debate, Joe took an official trip to France with his wife, First Lady Jill Biden. The couple made it a point to lay wreaths at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery to honor the soldiers.
An author spoke about Trump's poor memory
Donald Trump's quietly mumbled "Did I?" could be a genuine question. Author and journalist Ramin Setoodeh wrote "Apprentice in Wonderland," which covered Trump's time on the reality show "The Apprentice." After six interviews with the former president, Setoodeh had some concerning things to share about Trump's mind.
"He goes from one story to the next," the author said in a June 2024 CNN interview. "He struggles with the chronology of events." According to Setoodeh, interviewing Trump was difficult. "There was some cognitive questions about where he was and what he was thinking and he would, he would from time to time become confused." One example of that confusion was when Trump didn't remember their first interview and rehashed a lot of the same things. "He also seemed to think that he still had some foreign policy powers," Setoodeh said later in the interview. "And there was one day where he told me he needed to go upstairs to deal with Afghanistan, even though he clearly didn't."
Of course, Joe Biden is not free from scrutiny about his state of mind either. Biden's poor debate performance has everyone talking about Michelle Obama as a potential replacement heading into the November 2024 election.