Veteran political journalist Mark Halperin issued a warning about bombshell stories involving either presidential candidate this close to the election, after The Atlantic published a controversial report about former President Trump on Tuesday.
The Atlantic piece alleges Trump disparaged a slain Mexican-American Army private while he was in office. However, several figures involved in the story, including the fallen soldier’s sister, have disputed the report’s claims as false.
Halperin addressed the controversial report on his livestream show “The Morning Meeting” on Wednesday, to warn that there’s “all sorts of things being floated out there” to journalists right now trying to discredit each candidate.
“Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic just happened to publish his story two weeks before the election with accusations against Donald Trump, some of which have been disputed for the first time, some of which have been disputed for quite some time. And the point I was making is there’s all sorts of things being floated out there. Maybe Jeffrey Goldberg just happened to finish the story two weeks before the election,” he began.
“I know of one story that’s been pitched to a major newspaper and to me, and for all I know, to many others, that I don’t believe is true. But if it’s true, as I said yesterday, it would end Donald Trump’s campaign, just as if the accusations, now thoroughly debunked, contributed by American intelligence to Russia about Tim Walz, if those were true, it would end his campaign.”
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“What we’re seeing in the final days — is the point I was making — is, actors who want a certain outcome, are on social media and in pitches to reporters, and in the case of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, writing himself, are trying to affect the end of the race because they’re so desperate to try to pull a Comey,” he continued, referring to the former FBI Director’s decision to re-open the probe into then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s private email server, days before the 2016 election.
Halperin clarified he wouldn’t be digging deeper into the story he was pitched because he didn’t believe it was legitimate, but he reiterated that these types of stories were being offered to media outlets.
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“I’m not pursuing the story. I don’t think it’s true. People in Mar-a-Lago, calm down. All I’m saying is there are people out there pitching stuff and and if it were true, it would end his campaign,” he said.
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Goldberg’s report in The Atlantic also claimed Trump said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had. People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders,” citing two unnamed sources who allegedly heard him say it in the White House.
A spokesman for Trump called the claim “absolutely false,” telling Goldberg, “President Trump never said this.”
Goldberg was also the journalist behind the 2020 report alleging then-President Trump disparaged fallen soldiers buried at the Aisne-Marne American cemetery near Paris as “suckers” and the land was “filled with losers” back in 2018, all of which was based on anonymous sources.
Both Trump and White House officials strongly denied Goldberg’s reporting at the time.
The Atlantic did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Halperin’s remarks.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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