A New and Predictable Twist

Since my last post was written, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly addressed the nation via a press conference. In it he eloquently spoke of the rituals of taking care of fallen soldiers after their deaths, and what is and is not expected of presidents regarding their contact with the families of the deceased. He said that some presidents call family members, sometimes, and all write letters. As a former general and Gold Star Family member himself, Kelly spoke from the heart with the kind of authority that few people could have. Frankly in my opinion, that part of his monologue was brilliant.

Sgt. La David Johnson

Then he got to the part that explained Donald Trump's seemingly callous words to Myeshia Johnson, the widow of a young U.S. Army Green Beret who was killed two weeks earlier in Niger. Kelly said that President Trump came to him after a press conference where the subject of contacting families was brought up and told him he'd like to call the survivors of the four dead soldiers. Kelly said that he discouraged the president from doing so but Trump insisted, asking Kelly's advice on what to say.

Kelly responded with what a close friend of his told him after his own son was killed after stepping on a land mine in Afghanistan. The friend told Kelly something to the effect of, "your son was doing what he wanted to do and was exactly where he wanted to be when he lost his life, defending his country, despite the risks. Perhaps Kelly worded it a little more delicately than the president did to Mrs. Johnson, yet the words had essentially the same meaning. Despite his good intentions, I have to say that Kelly's advice to the president on what to say to Mrs. Johnson and the other family members of soldiers killed alongside La David Johnson, was inappropriate. Kelly's were originally the words coming from one brother-in-arms to another. While the words made perfect sense to Kelly, a lifelong soldier, they certainly must have had a different ring to Mrs. Johnson, a young widow who herself was never in the service, but rather, found herself the victim of it. And unlike Kelly's experience, those words were not delivered by a close friend and comrade who shared common experiences and values, but rather a complete stranger with no military experience of his own.

I have no doubt that President Trump was trying to do the right thing by calling the family members of the fallen soldiers. Kelly warned the president before his calls that, "there is no way that your words will lighten the load of these people."  Wise words indeed, it was just too bad that Kelly couldn't have come up with a more suitable message of comfort, tailor fit for a mother of two with one on the way, who will never get to meet his or her father. Coming up with the right words is certainly no easy task and I do not fault Kelly or Trump for not getting it right.

Kelly's explanation made perfect sense to me and today I completely understand why Trump chose the words he did. But apparently that explanation was not satisfactory for the president who continues to deny he said those words, insisting that Congresswoman Frederica Wilson was lying about the conversation, and implying that his own chief of Staff was lying as well. Instead of leaving well enough alone, the president is perpetuating yet another needless battle that further divides the nation, and making himself look like a complete doofus in the process.

Having listened to Kelly's words in the first portion of his press conference, I was convinced more than ever that Congresswoman Wilson was in the wrong by reporting to the press the contents of the president's call to Mrs. Johnson, which she listed in on via speakerphone. The congresswoman did herself no favors when she later made a comment likening herself to a rock star for all the attention she received after the current imbroglio began this week.  

Yet John Kelly is also guilty of not knowing when to quit. Kelly chose to close his comments with an uncalled for dissing of the U.S. representative from Florida which was framed around a falsehood. Comparing the congresswoman to "an empty barrel that makes the most noise" Kelly recalled the 2015 dedication of an FBI field office in Miami, named after two agents who were killed in the line of duty. Kelly said he was appalled by the congresswoman's "self-serving" remarks at the dedication, claiming that all she spoke of was her own role in bringing the center to her constituents. Tapes of the speech proved otherwise, while she did make a reference to her role in bringing the office to her Miami constituents, (imagine a politician ever taking credit for something!), she also spoke of the role of other lawmakers responsible for the project, whose work “speaks to the respect that our Congress has for the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the men and women who put their lives on the line every single day.”

When pressed on the matter of General Kelly's (to put it kindly) memory lapse, White House spokesperson Sarah Hucakabee Sanders doubled down implying that the press was out of line for daring to question the word of a retired four star general.

And so it goes. What happens when our current government, run by people who refuse to take responsibility for even the most trivial error, one who will stop at nothing when it comes to justifying the unjustifiable, are being covered by a highly motivated and competitive  press looking for any angle they can get on a story? In this case, with no act to speak of, just a misunderstanding with a perfectly logical explanation, the story itself, not the act, becomes the story.

What a series of unfortunate, yet predictable events. What a country.