Biden visits a military cemetery that Trump reportedly said was 'filled with losers'

BELLAU, France — President Biden on Sunday paid tribute to fallen U.S. Marines at an American cemetery outside of Paris, a resting place that features prominently in his case against former President Donald Trump.

More than 2,200 Americans who fought and died in World War I are buried in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery. "Every Marine I know, knows about the Battle of Bellau Woods," Biden told reporters after a short wreath-laying ceremony.

"More Marines were lost here than any battle until the middle of World War II. The idea that I come to Normandy and not make the short trip here to pay tribute..." Biden said.

Trump had been scheduled to visit the cemetery in Nov. 2018, on the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. But he scrapped those plans. The White House blamed the weather, saying it was too rainy for helicopters to fly, and arguing that a motorcade would have been too disruptive for traffic and the schedule.

A different and much more damning story emerged two years later in The Atlantic, one that Biden often highlights on the campaign trail to show that his predecessor is not fit to be commander in chief.

What The Atlantic said happened with Trump

The Atlantic said Trump canceled the trip because he didn’t want to get his hair wet in the rain, telling senior staff members “‘Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.’”

The magazine said that Trump separately referred to Marines who lost their lives in the Battle of Belleau Wood as “‘suckers’ for getting killed.”

At the time the article came out, the Trump campaign strongly disputed its claims. Last year, Trump’s then-chief of staff John Kelly confirmed much of it in an on-the-record statement to CNN – a statement that the Trump campaign