'He outright LIED': The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg is back with another 'dishonest' Trump smear — but it's quickly debunked

The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, is at it again, smearing former President Donald Trump with anonymous sources and providing ammunition for Democrat political attacks ahead of Election Day. Unfortunately for Goldberg and his anti-Trump narrative, people who were actually in the room at the time the remarks were supposedly made have indicated that nothing of the sort happened — that it's more fake news.

Army Private Vanessa Guillén — posthumously promoted to the rank of specialist — was murdered inside the armory at Fort Hood in April 2020 by a fellow soldier.

Goldberg claimed that Trump volunteered to help financially with Guillén's funeral but then raged upon learning the total cost. According to the hit piece, Trump said, "It doesn't cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f***ing Mexican!" and ordered his then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, not to pay.

Meadows, a leading character in Goldberg's narrative, noted Tuesday, "I was in the discussions featured in the Atlantic's latest hit piece against President Trump. Let me say this. Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false."

'President Donald Trump absolutely did not say that.'

"He was nothing but kind, gracious, and wanted to make sure that the military and the U.S. government did right by Vanessa Guillen and her family," added Meadows.

Ben Williamson, a former senior communications adviser for the Trump White House and spokesman for Meadows, provided insight into the extent of Goldberg's dishonesty, highlighting the substantial disparity between Meadows' statement, as provided to the Atlantic, and what was ultimately printed in the final piece.

Williamson indicated that he shared the following statement from Meadows with the Atlantic via text:

President Donald Trump absolutely did not say that. He was nothing but kind, gracious, and wanting to make sure that the military and the U.S. government did right by Gloria Guillen and her daughter Vanessa Guillen. As for the allegation that he told me to refuse payment: That is not true.

Williamson noted that the "Atlantic translated that comment to 'didn't hear Trump say it.' Treat this dishonest piece accordingly."

'He used and exploited my clients, and Vanessa Guillen's murder ... for cheap political gain.'

Trump spokesman Alex Pfeiffer similarly relayed a narrative-killing statement to the Atlantic from then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller's chief of staff, Kash Patel, but it appears to have made it into the article unscathed:

As someone who was present in the room with President Trump, he strongly urged that Spc. Vanessa Guillen's grieving family should not have to bear the cost of any funeral arrangements, even offering to personally pay himself in order to honor her life and sacrifice. In addition, President Trump was able to have the Department of Defense designate her death as occurring "in the line of duty," which gave her full military honors and provided her family access to benefits, services, and complete financial assistance.

Natalie Khawam, the attorney for the Guillén family quoted in the Atlantic hit piece, characterized Goldberg as a liar.

"After having dealt with hundreds of reporters in my legal career, this is unfortunately the first time I have to go on record and call out Jeffrey Goldberg," wrote Khawam. "Not only did he misrepresent our conversation but he outright LIED in HIS sensational story. More importantly, he used and exploited my clients, and Vanessa Guillen's murder ... for cheap political gain."

Extra to noting the curious timing of the hit piece, Khawam tweeted, "Not only did Trump support our military, he also invited my clients to the Oval Office and supported the I Am Vanessa Guillen bill too."

Goldberg's smear was so unbelievable that even Guillén's sister, Mayra, put her foot down Tuesday, calling out the Atlantic for its dishonesty and ghoulish attempt to exploit the service member's death for political purposes.

"Wow. I don't appreciate how you are exploiting my sister's death for politics," wrote Mayra Guillén. "Hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members. President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today."

Even though Goldberg's report has significant credibility issues, the Democratic National Committee circulated it widely as though it were true — just as it circulated Goldberg's last election-time hit piece.

Weeks ahead of the 2020 election, Goldberg claimed that during a trip to Paris in 2018, Trump called fallen soldiers "suckers" and "losers."

Despite its liberal skew, even Snopes acknowledged there was "no evidence of an audio or video recording of the remarks in question, nor was there any documentation, such as transcripts or presidential notes, to independently confirm or deny the alleged quotes' authenticity."

Blaze News senior editor for politics Christopher Bedford noted shortly after Goldberg's 2020 hit piece debuted that Goldberg had centered his piece on "secondary-source rumor-mongering" even though it was contradicted by substantial primary sources, including both people and documents.

"That should have earned a swift no-publish call, but instead their qualms went completely unmentioned," wrote Bedford. "An unskeptical belief the president is a bad man who must be defeated has led to discarding an ever-growing number of essential journalistic practices. It's the reason more and more Americans don't trust their media — and it's a good one."

None of those problems stopped Democrats from running with a story they'd already known was coming. The 2020 hit piece was published on a Thursday night, but by Friday morning, MSNBC's "Morning Joe" had "the exclusive" on a polished Democrat attack ad featuring veterans attacking Trump over specific allegations in the article.

Laurene Powell Jobs — the president of Emerson Collective, which owns the Atlantic — just happens to be one of Kamala Harris' biggest financial backers and has been shoveling cash her way since 2003. Goldberg's article ostensibly serves as a different kind of campaign support.

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