Resurfaced Video Bolsters Fox News Reporting That Trump Called Pentagon Leaders ‘Losers’ and ‘Babies’

Resurfaced video bolsters Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin’s reporting that President Donald Trump called military leaders “losers” and “babies” during a meeting at the Pentagon in 2017.

On Monday, Griffin added to her reporting on Trump’s denigration of U.S. military personnel by reporting that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was present at a July 20, 2017 Pentagon meeting during which Trump disparaged four-star generals by calling them “losers,” “dopes,” and “babies.”

Griffin’s reporting was in response to Mnuchin’s claim that he had “never heard” Trump speak ill of the military.

The reporting is backed up by at least two instances in which Trump, as a presidential candidate, slammed U.S. military leaders using precisely the same terms.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, one regular feature of Trump’s stump speech was to slam U.S. military leaders for announcing their intention to attack ISIS in Mosul. But on at least two occasions, he peppered that chunk with the exact language in Griffin’s reporting.

During a November 5, 2016 speech in Tampa, Trump launched into the familiar routine — the premise of which is that ISIS would have been completely surprised at an attack on their greatest stronghold in Iraq had no inkling been given by U.S. military leaders — by saying “Whatever happened to the element of surprise? The element of surprise?” and derisively declaring “What a group of losers we have. And now it’s a very tough battle.”

And during an earlier speech, on October 21, Trump punctuated his Mosul routine by saying “We have a bunch of babies running our country, folks. We have a bunch of losers. They’re losers, they’re babies.”

That reference is a bit less clear because Trump immediately pivoted to attacking then-President Barack Obama and then-First Lady Michelle Obama, but given the context, it appears he was referring to both the military and political leadership under the Obama administration.

Watch the clips above via C-Span.