The reports are spawning nationwide outrage. The president vigorously denies them.

The reaction has been immediate and harsh.

“I served active duty in the military and I find it absolutely disgraceful for anyone to think that Americans who gave their lives in the service to our nation are somehow losers or suckers,” said U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, a Los Angeles Democrat.

Lieu, who still serves in the Air Force Reserve, is outraged.

“It is completely unacceptable when these words come from the mouth of the commander-in-chief and I call on Donald Trump to immediately apologize,” Lieu said.

One California woman wrote on Twitter: “This is my grandfather. He was a marine who took machine-gun fire at Belleau Wood. He was honored by his country and by the people of France. Donald Trump just called him a loser for being wounded in action.”

The president, returning from a rally in Pennsylvania, denied the story in its entirety, speaking from the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews.

“I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes. There is nobody who respects them more.”

“What animal would say such a thing?”

“He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero ’cause he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK?”

The president’s opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, whose late son Beau served in the Army, struck back at the president while at a town hall in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

“The words of a president matter,” Biden said. “No matter if they’re good, bad or indifferent, they matter.”