Josh Marshall: He's Poison

[babylonsister]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/hes-poison


He’s Poison

By Josh Marshall Published October 17, 2017 3:09 pm


snip//

I don’t know why President Trump failed to take public note of the US military deaths in Niger. What he communicated privately is something I think it would be reasonable to just keep private. The inexplicable failure to publicly note the deaths led to the discussion of any private communication. But President Trump is the one who made the egregious claim that Presidents Obama and Bush never called families to take the spotlight off himself.

Everybody, basically universally, agrees this was a lie. There’s no debate over that.

But I’m not sure that’s even the worst part. To get out of an awkward situation, Trump triggered a partisan fight about one of the most painful, horrible, hallowed part of our national life. People use the word too casually. I’ve used it too casually. But it’s a genuine disgrace. It’s a disgrace.

Now the White House is putting out the word that Obama didn’t call Chief of Staff John Kelly, then a senior Marine General and later Commander of Southern Command. Kelly’s then-29 year old son Robert, a Marine First Lieutenant, was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan. President Trump this morning asked: “As far as other presidents, I don’t know, you could ask Gen. Kelly, did he get a call from Obama? I don’t know what Obama’s policy was.”

An unnamed White House official says Obama did not.

Obama is not talking.

General Kelly isn’t talking.

None of us should be talking.

We shouldn’t be having this conversation at all. There was no need to until now. I don’t know what happened between Kelly and Obama. Almost 500 Americans died in Afghanistan in 2010. I doubt Obama spoke by phone to every single family. We don’t know who wanted to talk and who didn’t. We don’t know enough to litigate these questions and we really have no business doing so. We’ve had the most horribly polarized politics during the Bush and Obama presidencies. Yet none but those on the fringes of the political debate felt the need to go here.

But now we are. And that’s the thing: Donald Trump poisons everything. It’s like an abuser with a captive family; he poisons everything, inflames everything, destroys and degrades anything in his path for his own ends. No one gets out in one piece. He’s poison. He’s just poison. There’s no other way to put it. He hurts the country every moment he’s in office.

[peggysue2]

1. I refer back to . . .

Rick Wilson, dedicated conservative and Never-Trumper, who has coined the following phrase

Everything Trump Touches Dies.

It's a cautionary note, as true now as it was when Wilson first wrote it.

Everything Trump Touches Dies.

A new mantra for the Age of Trump. This and Lock Him Up. At the very least? Tape his foul mouth.

[thegoose]

2. I'm sure he wrote so many letters, too

He's so full of shit. And the author is right. He's a horrible disease that degrades the country every second he slimes up the Oval Office.

[smirkymonkey]

3. One of the best things I have read about Trump so far.

"...he poisons everything, inflames everything, destroys and degrades anything in his path for his own ends. No one gets out in one piece. He’s poison. He’s just poison. There’s no other way to put it. He hurts the country every moment he’s in office."

Thank you for posting this.

[maxsolomon]

4. Amen.

Even those of us who saw this coming, who yelled "con man" at the top of our lungs, will look back on this era with shame that we couldn't stop it.

[Hekate]

5. This

[Ilsa]

6. Obama may have spoken to Heather Kelley, the deceased's wife.

You know, next of kin.

[enough]

7. And General Kelly and his wife attended a breakfast for Gold Star families at the

White House.

https://www.salon.com/2017/10/17/that-time-john-kelly-dined-with-obama-though-white-house-said-he-didnt-call/

[not fooled]

8. Marshall is right

This topic should be off the table.

As an aside, however, I wouldn't trust anything an "unnamed" WH source says re whether President Obama called or didn't call. Wouldn't put it past dump to force one of his minions to plant the story. And, if the Kellys were deemed important enough to be seated at First Lady Michelle Obama's table, chances are their loss was acknowledged with a phone call.

[dalton99a]

9. +1

[keithbvadu2]

10. Trump put Kelly on the spot and made the son's death political.