KELLY GIVES MEDIA A FOUR-STAR BRIEFING Marine’s only frustration has been fake news
The media’s never-ending cycle of fake news took a major hit yesterday.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly — long the subject of rumors posing as news that he can’t control the supposed chaos, that he’s about to be fired, that he is shocked by President Trump’s utterances — served up some reality, shooting down the false media stories that are — you guessed it — flat-out lies.
Kelly addressed the palace intrigue rumors head-on — including a bogus Vanity Fair piece claiming his relationship with Trump is “irreparable” and that he’s “frustrated” with the job.
“I am not so frustrated in this job that I am thinking of leaving,” Kelly told reporters, adding “Unless things change, I’m not quitting. I’m not getting fired and I don’t think I’ll fire anyone tomorrow.”
So spike that fake news story.
Since this Boston-bred Marine general took over as chief of staff, the media has misinterpreted his every move — down to his posture.
When Kelly has bowed his head while Trump was speaking, the media spun that as hang-dog embarrassment at what his boss was saying. Nope, Kelly said, looking down is thinking. Not an uncommon stance, except to a media eager to find something nefarious in everything about this administration.
Kelly told the assembled Trump-bashing press yesterday that the only thing he finds frustrating about his job is all the false news stories the administration is subjected to.
If you’ve paid any attention to recent media coverage, when they aren’t pushing the latest non-news about the phony Russia collusion probe, they’re working overtime to paint the unsettling and false narrative that Trump is so “unhinged” and “out of control” that even a former Marine general can’t control him. False again.
Kelly schooled reporters, “I was not brought to this job to control anything but the flow of information to our president … I restrict no one from going to see him. I was not sent in or brought in to control him and you should not measure my effectiveness as chief of staff on what you think I should be doing.”
Much to the media’s chagrin, what we do have in the White House is a highly competent chief of staff. A rocksolid former Marine, a Gold Star father and effective personnel manager who enjoys a productive relationship with the president and his staff.
So voters beware. The next time you hear a negative report about the White House, do yourself a favor and ask: Is this more of the fake news I keep hearing about?
Chances are it is.