Kelly defends Trump over condolence calls
ened partisan conflicts. Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication,” Bush said. “We have seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty.”
Trump was a longtime proponent of a false theory that Democratic former President Barack Obama was not born in the US. Obama was born in the US state of Hawaii.
Bush said Americans were the heirs of Thomas Jefferson, the third US President, as well as civil rights leader Martin Luther King jnr.
“This means that people of every race, religion, and ethnicity can be fully and equally American,” he said. “It means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed.”
Trump has had a rocky relationship with the Bush family. He belittled former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who was an early opponent of Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, and has criticised George W. Bush for the war in Iraq and for presiding over the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Bush said globalisation could not be wished away “any more than we could wish away the agricultural revolution or the industrial revolution”.
He also had harsh words for Russia and seemed to take aim at Trump for playing down Moscow’s intervention in the US election.
“According to our intelligence services, the Russian Government has made a project of turning Americans against each other. This effort i s broad, systematic and stealthy,” he said.
“Foreign aggressions, including cyber- attacks, disinformation and financial influence, should not be downplayed or tolerated.
“This i s a clear case where the strength of our democracy begins at home.” He started by describing the reverent handling of United States war dead, bodies packed in ice and shipped home in the dark to Dover Air Force Base.
From that opening, White House chief of staff John Kelly delivered a raw and searing monologue yesterday about the reality and pain of war sacrifice, praising those who serve and summoning the 2010 death of his own son to defend President Donald Trump against accusations of insensitive outreach to a grieving military family.
In an unannounced appearance at the White House, Kelly, a retired threestar general whose son was killed while serving in Afghanistan, dressed down the Democratic congresswoman who had criticised Trump for comments she said he had made in a condolence call to the pregnant widow of a Green Beret killed in Niger.
Kelly called Representative Frederica Wilson of Florida an “empty barrel” who “makes noise”, but he did not deny the lawmaker’s account of the phone call, as the President did this week. Throughout his remarks, Kelly lamented what he said was lost respect for military service, women, authority and more.
“I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning, and brokenhearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing,” Kelly said. “Absolutely stuns me. And I thought at least that was sacred.”
The remarkable scene underscored Kelly’s singular role as an authoritative adviser and now spokesman for a President who is prone to false claims, exaggerations and misstatements. Kelly, who joined the White House to restore internal order, has increasingly become a public figure himself, employed to project calm and reassurance in times of crisis.
Kelly personally absolved Trump of blame in his call to the family of Sergeant La David Johnson, a conversation that prompted Wilson to declare that the President had been disrespectful to the grieving family.
Wilson, who was in the car with the family of Johnson when Trump called on Wednesday, said in an interview that Trump had told Johnson’s widow: “You know that this could happen when you signed up for it . . . but it still hurts.” Johnson’s aunt, who raised the soldier from a young age, said the family took that remark to be disrespectful.
Kelly said yesterday: “If you’re not in the family, if you’ve never worn the uniform, if you’ve never been in combat, you can’t even imagine how to make that call.
“I think he very bravely does make those calls.”
Trump — who has frequently struggled with showing empathy — has emphatically rejected claims that he was disrespectful. But he started the latest controversy himself this week when he boasted about his commitment to calling service members’ next of kin and brought Kelly into the issue by wondering aloud if President Barack Obama had called the former Marine general after the death of Kelly’s son.
Kelly confirmed yesterday that Obama had not called him, but he made clear “that was not a criticism”. “That’s not a negative thing,” he said. “I don’t believe all presidents call. I believe they all write.”
In fact, the chief of staff said that when Trump took office, he advised him against making those calls: “I said to him, ‘ Sir, there’s nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families.’”
But Trump wanted to make the calls, and asked Kelly for advice on what to say. In response, Kelly told him what General Joseph Dunford, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told him when Robert Kelly was killed. Kelly recalled that Dunford told him his son “was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what the possibilities were because we’re at war”. And Kelly added that Dunford told him: “When he died, he was surrounded by the best men on this earth, his friends. That’s what the President tried to say to four families the other day.”
Kelly said the Defence Department is investigating the the October 4 ambush that killed four US soldiers, including Johnson, in Niger.