I didn't want to do an addendum to the previous post about Jeffrey Goldberg's collection of unnamed sources saying things, but I have to. I promise I will try to keep it short. I recommend not reading it. This is largely for my own dotting of i's and crossing of t's so I can sleep medicine.

Jim Acosta, a celebrity journalist, on CNN:

Trump referred to Marines buried at cemetery in France in crude and derogatory terms, a former senior administration official says

Can't these journalists get one person to go on record? You've been doing this a long time. You can't get one name?

The former official, who declined to be named, largely confirmed reporting from Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic magazine, which cited sources who said Trump rejected the idea of a cemetery visit and proceeded to refer to the fallen soldiers as "losers" and "suckers."

Let me re-write that. The former unidentified official said similar things as Goldberg's unidentified officials. Major Major, radio check, over. Hey Jeffrey, it's Jim, I have a source saying similar things as your sources. I'd like to make sure my source isn't one of your sources, but I can't tell you who my source is. That's fair, I can't tell you who my sources are either. Well, we did our best to deconflict. I'm sure they're not the same sources. Not a chance.

Here's an interesting paragraph in the CNN article. It has links. Let's see how many names we find.

Fox News, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Associated Press have also corroborated parts of The Atlantic's reporting.

Fox News:

Sources dispute claim Trump nixed visit to military cemetery over disdain for slain veterans, but back up parts of Atlantic report

two sources told Fox News

Two sources who were on the trip in question with Trump...

One of the sources who refuted the Atlantic's reporting is not a fan of Trump.

Both sources also noted that Trump...

The sources only rejected the claim about Aisne-Marne,

But a former senior Trump administration official who was in France traveling with the president in November 2018 did confirm other details surrounding that trip...

The source said that during the trip...

It goes on and on like that.

Washington Post:

Griffin, a national security correspondent for Fox News, found sources to validate key aspects of the story, sharing her reporting on Twitter and on anchor Bret Baier’s news show.

In a nine-tweet thread Friday afternoon, Griffin cited two unnamed former senior administration officials who she said confirmed for her many key aspects of Atlantic Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg’s story about Trump’s cancellation of a trip to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery while visiting Paris in 2018.

“According to one former senior Trump administration official: ‘When the President spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, ‘It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker,’ ” she wrote.

Before the president took aim at her reporting, Griffin took veiled shots from some of her colleagues, most notably contributor Mollie Hemingway, a senior editor for the Federalist. After Fox News national correspondent Jacqui Heinrich shared Griffin’s reporting, Hemingway wrote: “Reminder: it is literally impossible for anonymous sources to ‘confirm’ a report, particularly when the original report is based solely on anonymous sources. The same people can repeat claims to multiple reporters, of course, particularly when engaged in a campaign operation.” [That is not a veiled shot. That's a reference to Journalism 101.]

New York Times:

Paywall. I can't read it, sorry.

Associated Press:

The allegations were first reported in The Atlantic. A senior Defense Department official with firsthand knowledge of events and a senior U.S. Marine Corps officer who was told about Trump’s comments confirmed some of the remarks to The Associated Press, including the 2018 cemetery comments.

Trump responded by saying he didn’t want to visit the cemetery because it was “filled with losers,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

In another conversation on the trip, The Atlantic said, Trump referred to the 1,800 Marines who died in the World War I battle of Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed. [Right...The Atlantic said...by way of some unnamed officials.]

The Defense officials also confirmed to The AP...

The senior Marine Corps officer and The Atlantic, citing sources with firsthand knowledge, also reported that...

The magazine said Trump also referred to former President George H.W. Bush as a “loser”...

Massive media powerhouses. Celebrity journalists. And they can't get a name. Generals and national security officials hiding behind veils.

It's no wonder Trump and his base believe in Deep State and media conspiracies. I guarantee every one of his supporters is skeptical of the unnamed officials and thinks it's reasonable that Trump chose not to fly in bad weather or drive a massive, unplanned convoy through France. Have you ever compared a U.S. presidential convoy to convoys of other heads of state? They are not the same.

For what it's worth, I think Trump is a dishonest, corrupt, incompetent president. He has tragically botched the COVID-19 response. I desperately want him to be a one term president. I also think he's right that the Vietnam War was stupid. But I bet he has almost no understanding or awareness of why the 58,318 Americans (Wikipedia) who died in the Vietnam War couldn't avoid the war. No deferments, no rich father, no flexible bone spurs doctor.