Kelly ‘Stunned’ That Dem Rep. Criticized Trump’s Call To Soldier’s Widow

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly speaks to the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on October 19, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Oliver Contreras)(Sipa via AP Images)
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White House Chief of Staff John Kelly defended President Donald Trump and harshly criticized a Democratic congresswoman on Thursday, in a lengthy and emotional statement from the White House Briefing Room podium that included a mention of his son, who died when he stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan in 2010.

At the White House press briefing Thursday, Kelly said he was “stunned” that Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) listened in on Trump’s call to the widow of a fallen soldier earlier this week. Both Wilson and Sgt. La David Johnson’s childhood guardian said that when Trump called to offer his condolences to Johnson’s widow, he had said that Johnson “knew what he was signing up for.” Wilson said Johnson’s widow had tearfully observed after the call that Trump didn’t know her fallen husband’s name.

Wilson said everyone in the car heard the call with Trump, as the soldier’s widow, Myeshia Johnson, had set her device to speakerphone.

Kelly attacked Wilson for relaying the contents of the call to members of the media.

I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning, and brokenhearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing,” he said. “A member of Congress who listened in the on a phone call from the President of the United States to a young wife.”

“John Kelly’s trying to keep his job,” Wilson told POLITICO on Thursday. “He will say anything. There were other people who heard what I heard.”

Kelly said he saw Wilson’s listening into to Trump’s call with Myeshia Johnson as part of a pattern in the degradation of certain “sacred” parts of American life: “Women,” “life,” “religion,” and “gold star families,” the latter perhaps being a reference to the Khan family’s outspoken criticism of Trump during the 2016 campaign, which was met with attacks from Trump.

“You know, when I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country,” he said. “Women were sacred and looked upon with great honor. That’s obviously not the case anymore as we’ve seen from recent cases. Life, the dignity of life was 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. But I just thought the selfless devotion that brings a man or woman to die on the battlefield, I just thought that that might be sacred.”

Kelly continued, referring to Rep. Wilson: “When I listened to this woman and what she was saying and what she was doing on TV, the only thing I could do to collect my thoughts was to go and walk among the finest men and women on this Earth. And you can always find them, because they’re at Arlington National Cemetery.”

“John Kelly’s trying to keep his job,” Wilson told POLITICO on Thursday. “He will say anything. There were other people who heard what I heard.”

Most Americans don’t know what happens when we lose one of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines or coast guardsmen in combat,” Kelly had said at the top of his remarks to reporters. “So let me tell you what happens.”

Kelly described each step in minute detail, his voice trembling.

“They are the very best this country produces, and they volunteer to protect our country when there’s nothing in our country anymore that seems to suggest that self service to the nation is not only appropriate but required,” he said. “But that’s alright.”

Trump ignited the firestorm on Monday, when he was asked why he had not yet publicly mentioned the deaths of four Green Berets in an ambush in Niger on Oct. 4. In making his first public statement about the four deaths, Trump accused former presidents of not sufficiently comforting the grieving families of fallen service members. The following day, he told Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade that the media should ask Kelly if Obama had called him when his son died.

Kelly said Thursday that he had told Trump Obama had not called him when his son died.

“That was not a criticism,” Kelly said. “That was just to simply say, I don’t believe President Obama called. That’s not a negative thing. I don’t believe President Bush called in all cases.”

Kelly also suggested Trump had gotten his line that Sgt. Johnson “knew what he was signing up for” from him.

“And he said to me, ‘What do I say’” Kelly recalled Trump asking him, before calling the families of those lost in Niger.

“I said to him, sir, there’s nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families,” Kelly continued. “But let me tell you what I tell them, let me tell you what my best friend, Joe Dunford, told me, because he was my casualty officer.”

“He said ‘Kel, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent.’”

Watch the full press briefing below:

This post has been updated.

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Notable Replies

  1. So Trump did say “he knew what he was doing.” And Kelly said that’s what he was told when he learned of his son’s death. But not by Obama, because Obama didn’t call. So a member of the military told a general that his son “knew what he signed up for.” And that means that was an appropriate message to give to a pregnant woman and her family, all civilians, on their way to pick up her husband’s body? If Ryan told Trump he should say that, then he should be apologizing for a real lapse in judgment, not lashing out at the slain soldier’s family and their friends.

  2. There’s no question that Kelly is complicit. He’s not just a baby-sitter—he’s hanging around for the sweet Nazi taste of white supremacy.

  3. Translation:

    “I’m the only one holding this shit show of a clown circus together so I need to fall on the grenade this time and present Dear Leader in a positive light so he doesn’t do something insane in a tantrum. So I’m going to go ahead and sacrifice my dignity and the memory of my son out of duty for country.”

    ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

  4. Whatever shreds of dignity and reputation Kelly may have had after becoming part of the Trump Fiasco are now gone.

    The congresswoman didn’t “listen in” to the conversation—it was on speaker phone so that everyone in the car could hear it.

    Kelly becomes a bigger disappointment with every passing hour.

  5. Guess what, General Kelly: you don’t get to tell this man’s widow what is appropriate or not. It is her grief and hers alone. Who she choses to share it with is none of your fucking business. If she wishes call attention to the callous and downright wickedness of our so called POTUS, then that is her choice.

    Don’t debase yourself further (if it is even possible) by defending the human excrement that you serve as lickspittle to. Your entire career pales in comparison to the treason you are currently engaged in.

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