John Kelly Shows He Is A Trump True Believer
John Kelly’s blast yesterday may have been heartfelt but it should erase any idea that this man is suffering while serving as chief of staff for Donald Trump. His words made clear that he and Trump are very much aligned in their view of America, if not their view of America’s place in the world. In fact, some parts of his diatribe were in many ways reminiscent of Trump’s dystopian inauguration speech.
As Josh Marshall point out, parts of Kelly’s remarks were a “paean to MAGA”. According to Kelly, “You know, when I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred, looked upon with great honor. That’s obviously not the case anymore as we see from recent cases. Life — the dignity of life — is sacred. That’s gone. Religion, that seems to be gone as well. Gold Star families, I think that left in the convention over the summer.”
Of course, as Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out last night, women were never sacred. They were getting abused and assaulted and it continues to this day. But now, at least, some are able to come out of the shadows and fight back. The religion that Kelly mourns was telling those same women they could not divorce their husbands or have an abortion to protect themselves and their children from the domestic abuse without risking going to hell. It also seems that his comment about the Gold Star families was actually a reference to the fact that Khizr Khan actually spoke up about Trump’s racism, essentially blaming the Khan’s for politicizing their son’s death.
Another remarkable feature of Kelly’s speech was that, during his entire comments, he was never able to utter the names of the family in question, or the longtime friend of the family and the man who was killed, who also happens to be a congresswoman. Instead, in the Trumpian fashion of belittling nicknames, he called that congresswoman, Frederica Wilson, an “empty barrel”, not once but twice, and essentially accused her of improperly eavesdropping on the President’s conversation and then politicizing it. This disregards the facts surrounding her long and close relationship with the fallen soldier and his family and the fact that the family had asked the congresswoman to be there with them.
Kelly wasn’t satisfied with slandering Wilson just once, however. He related a story about the commemoration of a federal office building in her district that was named after two fallen FBI agents. Kelly accused her of ignoring the families’ grief and simply claiming credit for obtaining the funding for the building. As if no politician has ever done the same. But that story, too, turns out to be a lie. The funding for the office was obtained before she even became a member of Congress, but she was responsible for getting the building named after the two FBI agents. At the same ceremony, James Comey said, “Rep. Wilson truly did the impossible, and we are eternally grateful.” And, earlier on the floor of the House, Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen had praised Wilson, saying, “I especially commend my friend, the gentlelady from Miami, Dr. Wilson, for spearheading this effort to commemorate and thank our law enforcement officers and especially to highlight the sacrifice these two agents made.”
More importantly, as O’Donnell as also noted, there was never any sense of remorse or acknowledgement that the family may have been offended but what Kelly tacitly acknowledged that Trump had said what was alleged, namely “that he knew what he signed up for”. All it would have taken was to say that I’m sorry the family misinterpreted what the President was trying to convey as a note of sympathy. But Trump never says he’s sorry and Kelly apparently won’t either. Instead, he tried to depict Trump as being “brave” for simply making the call. SAD!
As with all things in America, and especially these days unfortunately, the specter of race hangs over this issue.
But even beyond these outrageous statements and lies, Kelly’s remarks were “not a defense of Trump but disaffection from civilian culture”, according to David Frum. Kelly said, “We don’t look down upon those of you who that haven’t served. In fact, in a way we’re a little bit sorry because you’ll have never have experienced the wonderful joy you get in your heart when you do the kinds of things our service men and women do.” Of course, the statement alone reveals that he does look down on the other 99% who are not associated directly with the military. As Marshall says, if you believe Kelly, “[w]e don’t just owe respect to people who serve in the military. They are actually better than us civilians…Kelly made a similar point when he refused to take questions from any reporter who was not either from a Gold Star family themselves or personally knew someone who was. You may not even deserve your civic freedoms, the right to talk, to ask question, unless you are near to military sacrifice.”
When John Kelly became head of DHS, he implemented Trump’s mass deportation policies with vigor. It’s now clear that Kelly was not merely following orders but is actually a true believer in the Trump domestic project. Bob Corker may believe that Kelly is one of the people preventing Trump from starting World War III. But, after yesterday’s remarks, it’s clear that Kelly’s disdain for current civilian culture will not stop him from prosecuting Trump’s war at home, primarily because he himself believes in it.
