1) Trump dismissing sacrifice of service members is very plausible. But something being plausible does not make it true.

2) I strongly suspect the quotes and confirmations in the Atlantic piece came from second-hand sources, which is is why they won't go on-record.

3) We know at least one of the claims in the article (re weather just being an excuse for cancellation) is likely false.

4) The reason you don't run with this type of article is precisely because now it is just a partisan food fight.

4 Cont) Those who like Trump will point to on-record disputes and questionable details say it's false. Those who don't will point to anonymous confirmations and the fact that it sounds like him to them and say = true.

Everyone else will tune it out.

5) Now watching a bunch of media people arguing for days about an "if true" just hurts everyone's credibility. It serves no valuable purpose. If you want to run with it, get Gates or someone else who was there to confirm on record. Otherwise, this is just about scoring points.

And now Trump supporters and Trump opponents can go back to yelling at me because I won't just exonerate him given his record on these topics and I also won't support bad journalistic practices because they are aimed at Trump.