This is the real disgrace of Kelly's comments.

[madaboutharry]

The family of Sgt. Johnson was offended and upset. Can no one just say the words I'm sorry? Why does everyone else have to be wrong with these people?

This was an unfortunate moment. Kelly comes out and attacks the congresswoman, gives cover to Trump by claiming he said some of the things repeated in the phone call and asserting that Trump tried to express sympathy "in his own way," and fails to acknowledge the pain of Sgt. Johnson's family and suggest that they should be grateful.

Bringing out Kelly was an attempt for The White House to shut down criticism.

However, much was achieved in this distasteful display. We now know that Gen. Kelly does not possess the moral compass many have projected onto him.

[NBachers]

1. Yep, I thought Kelly was the sane one who'd keep Trump away from the nuclear keyboard.

Last edited Thu Oct 19, 2017, 07:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Now it looks like he's just more of the same.

[olegramps]

21. Just another product of the military academies. A brainwashed flag waving zero.

Anyone who would serve in this cabinet is a worthless excuse for a human. Any surprise that this craven opportunist doesn't have a shed of decency? When you see this many professional military in positions of power you better start digging a fox hole.

[cloudbase]

23. As a product of one of those academies,

I'd say you're painting with a rather broad brush there, gramps.

[rainin]

38. Broad brush indeed

as a mother of an academy cadet.

[TomSlick]

40. As a state college ROTC product

I agree. In my experience, academy graduates were bright, solid officers. Let's avoid broad strokes.

Kelly is failing to live up to the basic requirements of personal honor required of all military officers no matter what the source of commission.

[Ilsa]

25. I don't think it is worth it, even if true.

He's almost as bad as DOTUS.

[jimmil]

62. My SIL is a product of an academy

and is in Korea right now. When he was home last time I asked him what do his fellow officers think of Trump. He said they don't think anything about him. They just do their job. That is the exact answer I would have said about Nixon when I was in Vietnam. Soldiers don't think anything about politics. They don't swell up on a mission with patriotism. They don't think about a flag. They don't think about how great their country is. They think about their buddies all around them. They think about what waits for them just ahead. And when one of their own is killed, they think how much it hurts inside.

This red, white, and blue, flag waving, patriotism, USA USA USA, is complete BULLSHIT!!!!!!!

[dalton99a]

2. Kelly's craven cruelty can only be matched by his loyalty to Trump

and his personal ambitions

[asiliveandbreathe]

3. Apologize to the Johnson family - that is all they needed to do....

Now....WHY are we in Niger?????????

[Maeve]

57. Yes, if tRump were capable of saying, it, this would have ended the whole thing

"I regret my attempt at offering condolences failed. It was not my intention to add to your pain and I am truly sorry for that."
But he cannot and will not admit wrongdoing.

[louis-t]

4. Drumpf's "own way" is to act like an imbecile.

So, we're just supposed to accept it cuz that's how he is.

[uponit7771]

6. +1, that's the point !!! Red Don is an asshole !! He'll fuck up a wet dream, so of course even if it

... was written down for him Trump would fuck it up!!!

[uponit7771]

5. +1, Kelly did NOT help Red Don here! Kelly CONFIRMED the congress woman's words !!!

[ecstatic]

9. And his comment about women and gold star families no longer being sacred

Was definitely a dig on Trump. But still, he did attack the congresswoman (who is a family friend!).

[uponit7771]

13. RIGHT !!! Instead of just say we're sorry about the loss and Red Don and Red Don tried his best or

... some shit he goes after the family mother (the congress woman) !!!

Red Don is a disgusting bastard

[FSogol]

16. I got the impression that he was telling the press to butt out.

The grieving family should be able to include anyone they want on the call. Trumpy and his head Enabler, Kelly, once again proved how small they really are.

[SergeStorms]

27. The Congresswoman was....

"listening in on a very private conversation". It isn't like she tapped her damned phone or anything. The call was on speakerphone! Was she supposed to step out of a moving car to avoid hearing the conversation?

Kelly just spent every bit of credibility he ever earned when he defended Trump and his ham-handed attempt to "console" a grieving widow. Fuck Kelly, and fuck Donald J. Trump.

[Scarsdale]

54. The young, pregnant widow

probably would not even remember what was said, unless people around her listened in to the call. She is left with two little kids and another on the way. Her thoughts right now are not on taking calls from an orange jackass who thinks he is "important" If tRump has not learned any manners at his late stage of life, there is no hope he ever will. I HAD some respect for Kelly before, but now I think he is just another clown in this joke of an administration.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Narcissists and their enablers are never wrong. Somebody else is always to blame.

Dear Leader Don Dong Ill is faultless.

[FakeNoose]

31. LOL Don Dong Il

That's the best nickname yet!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

44. Thanks! I just invented it while composing that post. Feel free to use and spread it. . . . nt

[Mediumsizedhand]

8. Not only did they not apologize to wife back attacked a woman that is a lifetime friend to family.

[Justice]

10. in the long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, Kelly said.

Googled it: here is what I found "stupid people with ‘empty heads’ make a lot of noise and bluster putting forward their opinions and wrong knowledge, but knowledgeable people are quietly scholarly."

Wholly crap. What a horrible thing to say.

[trotsky]

11. "Why does everyone else have to be wrong with these people?"

Because the rabid right-wing base they built up depends on them believing everything Trump says is TRUE.

If they come out and admit they lied - even once - the tapestry will unravel.

[PA Democrat]

12. Maybe you can order a soldier to stand at attention but you cannot order

a grieving family not to feel as they do. You are 100% correct in stating that any decent human being would have apologized and said that they in no way wanted to add to the pain of a grieving family.

Shame on Kelly for enabling Trump's never-ending and addictive need to have his pathetic ego stroked.

[oasis]

14. "The Johnson family doesn't get to say what offends or upsets them."

That's the real message from the White House.

[keithbvadu2]

15. "in his own way,"

[matt819]

17. Maybe

it has something to do with the fact that their names are La David and Myeshia?

We may never know, but it would be interesting to learn what he wrote or said to the spouses of the other soldiers killed in this ambush.

And, as Maddow has said, and McCain repeated today, we need to know what happened. Yeah, I know. War. Shit happens. But this seems like a pretty bad intel failure - from no resistance to an ambush by more than 40 opposing forces. And why was Sgt Johnson left behind? I thought that was one of those indisputable Ranger/Marine/Special Forces precepts. Leave no man behind.

Lots of WTF about all of this, including the 12 days of silence, the failure to send out a statement that was drafted right after the incident, and so much more.

[Juliusseizure]

37. Its all BS distraction

Maddow was on point and the mass media - focused on shallow tabloid stories for the masses, just inflates the distraction - giving Trump control over the conversation.

He always includes racist red meat too during these distractions.

It works. Mass distraction is one thing Trump is good at.

Meanwhile, the events in Niger are virtually ignored.

[Sticky]

18. I was shocked by Kelly's remarks

I lost my only son when he was 7 years old. I would NEVER exploit his death the way Kelly just did. I literally felt creeping nausea while he was speaking, knowing his loyalty to Trump was greater than the loyalty to his son's memory.

[sarge43]

19. Read what he said

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/us/politics/john-kelly-son-trump.html

The creep used his son's death to cover Moron.

[rurallib]

24. which makes him in my eyes at least as bad if not worse than Trump

what a scum.

Generals inside the White House scare me and now this one REALLY scares me.

[sarge43]

29. There's been a couple of good ones - Marshall, Eisenhower

However, this one just came out as another self servicing careerist and poser, just the rest of the ferrets.

(My apologies to ferrets)

[dawnie51]

20. Kelly allowed himself to be "brought out".....

and he is deplorable as well. He holds a lot of Dumps own thoughts on immigration, etc., and he is WILLING to be used in this manner. It is so true; EVERYONE who comes into contact with Dump in any manner comes away diminished and damaged A lot of people thought Kelly was the antidote; he is not. He is part of the sickness.

[olegramps]

22. He wasn't bought out, he soldout years ago. Just like the rest of the war mongers.

[Eliot Rosewater]

26. Kelly has hated the press, i.e. democracy his entire life. His ONLY value was his ability

to physically tackle dumbshit if dumbshit tries to nuke someone.

[DLevine]

30. He couldn't do that even if he wanted to.

Secret Service isn't going to stand by and let him, or anyone, tackle a president. If the asshole decides to launch nukes, we are truly fucked.

[LisaM]

28. Brilliantly said.

I agree completely.

[spanone]

32. Kelly has a big problem when he thinks a congresswoman lied, But NO problem with a 'president' liar.

he's a company man.

[flygal]

53. and his bullshit about "sacred women" - he works for "grab 'em by the p****"

[mainstreetonce]

33. I give Kelly credit for one thing

He did not say Trump did not say the accused words. He proved that Trump lied.

I can understand that the general could have said similar words in a way that wouldn't hurt.

Trump should never have attempted to say such a thing.He does not understand sacrifice.

General Kelly should have apologized to the widow.

His attacks on the congresswoman were uncalled for and his request for only reporters who know Gold Star families was a disgrace.

[7962]

55. And thats the perfect explanation. Trump just doesn't have the ability.

Saying something like "He knew what he signed up for. Yet he still did it even though he knew he could be killed doing it". Its really not that hard. But trump just can't put sentences together properly. He's just a dolt.

[PubliusEnigma]

34. He let Trump use his dead son like a puppet.

[George II]

36. I had a bit of respect for General Kelly until this afternoon. But for selling out to trump....

....with today's appearance, he's no better than any of them.

[lark]

39. Kelly is not the "adult" in charge.

He's a liar, asshole, and enabler of a criminal traitorous fraud, and that's just what I know at this minute - he's probably a hell of a lot worse.

[rusty fender]

41. Boss Tweet will eventually

shit on Kelly...💩

[LostOne4Ever]

42. If one has a moral compass, then one would not have anything to do with the Rethug party. Nt

[tulipsandroses]

43. Its a disgrace.

No one that just lost a loved one, wants to hear that this is what they signed up for. His job in that moment was Consoler in Chief. He failed, just as he's failed at every aspect of being president. I wonder if he has ever said I'm Sorry to Melania? I guess anything that they bicker about as husband and wife is always her fault.

[Alpeduez21]

45. Kelly attacked Rep. Frederica Wilson

for listening to the call. He did the same thing on Trump's end of the call.

[FakeNoose]

48. Right, so that puts him in the same barrel

... with the Deflector in Chief!

I've lost all respect for that man, however I'm sorry that his son died in battle. It's a heavy cross to bear for any parent.

[Grammy23]

46. So Kelly explains to tRump what he needs to say to the grieving families.

But in a thousand years tRump couldn’t learn HOW to day it. That was the difference. The words, delivered properly would have been ok. Delivered with indifference and lacking compassion, they would come across exactly that way. tRump being the asshole he is, could never apologize. He could not bring himself to make a second call to try to do a better job.

But he COULD send Kelly out to make everything all right again. And Kelly sold out his integrity and went out to do his master’s bidding. He never disputed a single word that Congresswoman Wilson said happened on that call. So now he proposes to know how that family interpreted the call from tRump. Just ridiculous. The whole thing.

It really was a sad display. A man who knows personally what it is like to lose a child to war used that death in a most unfortunate way. I honestly don’t know how he brought himself to do it.

We have gotten lower and lower in this country. And tRump is taking us down further every day with another incident. How much longer will Congress allow this travesty to continue?

[7962]

56. Your first sentence says it. He just can't figure it out.

"Delivered properly, the words would have been ok". Exactly

[JHan]

47. K&R

[Lifelong Protester]

49. K & R

[DallasNE]

50. Trump's Statement Not Appropriate For The Occasion

Just because a statement is basically true (he knew what he signed up for) doesn't mean it is appropriate for the occasion. And that is the whole point. The rest is all smokescreen.

Kelly just keeps hurting his reputation when he plays partisan hack like this. Plus he is not being very good at his primary function - the gatekeeper to the President. (I know, that is a tough job).

[MFM008]

51. Kelly sold out

His soul and his kids.
He is beneath contempt.

[BlueJac]

52. Typical BOOT licker.......

nothing more!

[DeminPennswoods]

58. Kelly's s 4-star toady, nothing more

We should all remember how, when he was DHS secretary, he willingly and effectively enforced Trump's plan to deport every possible undocumented immigrant. He didn't care if his agents tore families apart, deported contributing members of American cites and towns, didn't care if deportees faced real personal danger if sent back to their native country, didn't care if they were protected "dreamers", he just unleashed the hounds of ICE. He's shown absolutely no regret or demonstrated a shred of remorse for these actions.

He is the complete antithesis of all the Marines I've ever known and, tbh, should be an embarassment to the Corps.

[humbled_opinion]

59. Fire all the

Old White men that is largely part of the problem.

[niyad]

60. the very fact that kelly was working for the orange madman told me he had NO moral

compass to begin with. and, I remember his comments about women when he was commandant of marines.

note to worthless kelly: some of us have reallllllllly long memories.

[Jakes Progress]

61. A very sorry group of people

who can't say the word "sorry".

No one in public office ever had more to apologize for. And they don't know how.

[oasis]

63. A video of Wilson's 2015 speech exposes the general to be a LIAR. nt