TPM - Marshall weighs in - "John Kellys Volcanic Remarks"

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/john-kellys-volcanic-remarks

By JOSH MARSHALL Published OCTOBER 19, 2017 3:58 PM

We’ll have reports on specifics shortly. But Chief of Staff John Kelly just spoke during the White House press briefing about the entire military bereavement phone call controversy. It was volcanic. He mercilessly attacked Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, both for her comments a couple days ago and for an earlier incident (which frankly seemed like a cheap shot). Kelly took basically complete responsibility for everything President Trump had done, what he had said, how he handled the phone calls to the families of the four who died in Niger.

The tenor was emotional, focused and intense. The upshot, though, was basically to turn everything that has happened over the last three days into a press and public attack on the sacredness of military sacrifice. Kelly has walked the walk and suffered it. He rose to the highest ranks of the Marine corps and lost a son in Afghanistan. He speaks with great credibility and experience. But I must say that the fusillade he delivered turned things almost entirely upside down.

I’ve seen very little evidence of anyone disrespecting military sacrifice. I’ve seen a lot of evidence of people thinking President Trump has done just that and being aghast at seeing it. We can’t know Trump’s exact feelings. We don’t know all his actions. But he’s given people lots of reasons to think and feel that way in recent days. It’s hardly surprising that people were outraged by the way he shifted toward baseless attacks on his predecessors to deflect criticism of himself. It was shameful.

Kelly also said, in addition to his other criticisms of Rep. Wilson that he was stunned she had ‘listened in’ on a call from the President to a bereaved widow. It seems quite clear from everything we know that the family took President Trump’s call on speaker phone with Rep. Wilson there with them. My understanding is she had a personal relationship with the family. He made it sound like she was violating some trust, eavesdropping almost. That seems deeply misleading and dishonest. Kelly did not mention that the mother, who was there, backed up Rep. Wilson’s account. Wilson made a very direct and damaging attack on the President. But this is a member of Congress, caring for and being with a bereaved family. Invited by them, sharing their pain. ‘Listening in’ is just an attack that turns everything on its head.


snip


last part

Freedom of speech and the press is also sacred. It is one of the values American military personnel strive to defend. I understand that he said this in a moment of peaked emotion. But we individuals or reporters don’t earn our spurs of civic freedom by being proximate to military service. That’s ugly and wrong. I am going to leave aside Kelly’s motives. But this spectacle seemed ugly and exploitative, ignoring much of what has happened over the last three days, falsifying other things. President Trump is a blowhard and a phony and a liar. Kelly isn’t. He brings prestige and a lifetime of military service to every remark. But at the end of the day this seemed like putting that wrapper of dignity around the most Trumpian of traits: never apologize, always attack, let the truth defend itself.

[AJT]

1. Kelly is just a trumphumper. He should be ashamed of insulting both the family

and rep. Wilson.

[doc03]

2. All Dump had to do was call them back and say what I said didn't come out

Last edited Thu Oct 19, 2017, 09:25 PM - Edit history (1)

right and I want to apologize if you were offended. Tell them they should be proud of their son and he was very sad over their loss.
(or something like that) Case would have been closed, but no he had to attack them and made a total ass out of himself. Dump is not capable of saying he made a mistake or he was sorry, he is a sad excuse for a human.

[riversedge]

7. Agree. but we know trump is not humble--nor smart.

[bobbieinok]

8. Would be just like Obama's world APOLOGY tour!!

RW still claiming this 'apology tour' shows how much Obama hates America and how it shows he isn't a real American.

[Solly Mack]

3. No one - and I do mean no one - gets to determine how a military spouse grieves.

They don't get to determine who they share that grief with or who is around them in their time of grief.

Kelly is in no position, not even after his own loss, to attempt to set a standard for how others experience the grief process.

His son died but that doesn't grant him some special license to speak on how others grieve - or to judge it.

He doesn't get to set a standard on who can be around the grieving spouse/family and he doesn't get to pretend he has some special right to judge how they experience grief.

He used to be a General with some authority over those in his command. Used.to.be.

He has no such authority now and no one owes him even a token gesture of respect for his stars - to pretend those once worn stars mean he has some elevated status when it comes to grieving military families.

He doesn't.

[smirkymonkey]

5. This!

[ProfessorGAC]

4. The Family Can't Invite A US Rep To Their House?

And they can't take the call on speakerphone? Unless those are 2 unwritten rules (and they're not) then Kelly has nothing.

[DK504]

6. And now we know Niger and Russia are in bed with one another.

[Lucinda]

9. KNR Thank you!

[UTUSN]

10. I was sputtering in traffic while a-hole KELLY was on the radio

I've posted a few times, when KELLY was lauded YES-HERE for being the adult somehow reining TWITLER in, that when he was at DHS he was a brute on Border policy.

He's been turned into the aw-shucks Gary COOPER/John "Draft Dodger" WAYNE type of testosterone hero.

Listening to several minutes of his press conference one question led to another:

* Since when do chiefs of staff hold press conferences?
I don't recall any by Rahm EMANUEL, PANETTA, or any of the other ones, full list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_White_House_Chiefs_of_Staff

* Why does TWITLER have to use others as crutches for defending and explaining his fuck-ups - not to mention never facing real and extended questions himself, always having a hapless visiting head of state standing next to him, and yukking it all off without the semblance of actual thought?!1

* When did the CIVILIAN CONTROL of American government get superceded by military prototypes?
Viz., reporters getting "qualified" to ask questions according to being or knowing Gold Star families.

* Who has degraded the principles of American government, not to mention Gold Star families, more than TWITLER?

* Why does an unelected flunky (you, KELLY) have more First Amendment privilege than a congresscritter who was elected to represent the constituents, besides having a personal relationship with the deceased veteran and his wife?

* Why do wingnuts exemplified by radio wingnut LOESH orgasming over KELLY believe that he personifies American values by dint of his gender and the stereotypical physical characteristics of it and of degrading his dead son's memory?