Courtesy of Newsweek:John Kelly confirms that Trump made insensitive remarks to widow of Green Beret. Just wishes no one heard him do it pic.twitter.com/6hfo5ZHAuP— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) October 19, 2017
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly ripped into a congresswoman who's been at the center of a controversy over a phone call President Donald Trump made to the family of Sgt. La David Johnson, a Green Beret killed in an ambush in Niger on October 4.
"I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning and brokenhearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing," Kelly said in an extraordinary White House briefing on Tuesday, referring to Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson who said Trump told the grieving widow that Johnson "he knew what he was getting into," setting off two days of controversy over the president's perceived insensitivity.
Kelly later described Wilson as an "empty barrel" in a "long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise."
By the way Rep. Wilson was a family friend who was IN the car with the family as they traveled to retrieve the body of this young woman's dead husband as it arrived at the airport. It was the family that put the call on speaker phone.
Kelly then went on to say that HE was the one who told Trump to say that the soldier "knew what he signed up for," which he claims was what he was told by the officer, a family friend, who contacted him after his son was killed in the line of duty.
Kelly's contention was that Trump meant well, but perhaps phrased things indelicately.
Of course that flies in the face of every single thing that we know about Donald Trump.
Kelly also went on to lament the loss of things that were once held "sacred" in this country, such as women, life, religion, and Gold Star families.
Of course Kelly seemed to forget that it was his boss who disrespected the Khans, a Gold Star family, during the campaign.Treatment of Gold Star families was once "sacred," Gen. Kelly says; "I think that left in the convention over the summer." pic.twitter.com/C7Ox48iFQN— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 19, 2017
As for women, he just finished attacking a female member of Congress. (By the way that was even made more egregious by the fact that he essentially confirmed, despite what his boss had said, that she had been telling the truth.)
In his remarks Kelly confirmed that President Obama did not call him after his son died, but said that it was not a bad thing since it is hard for presidents to call everybody especially if there are frequent casualties.
However he failed to mention that he attended a White House hosted Gold Star family breakfast at which he sat at table with Michelle Obama.
It was clear from the outset that Kelly had been sent out to preform clean up duty for Trump.
However to do that Kelly had to reveal that he was essentially comfortably seated in the basket of deplorables who will stick with Donald Trump no matter what he might do, or how he might damage the country.
And since a number of us were hoping that Kelly was somehow able to exert some control over Trump, that is very troubling to learn.
I am now left questioning John Kelly's integrity, and wondering if he is someone that can be counted on to rein in Trump's worst instincts, or if he is pouring gasoline on the embers of anger and frustration that Trump seems always to have smouldering under the surface?
