A video of Rep. Frederica Wilson’s (D-FL) speech at a 2015 FBI building dedication ceremony, taken by the Sun Sentinel newspaper and resurfaced on Friday, shows that the congresswoman did not brag about securing the funding for the building as White House Chief of Staff John Kelly claimed she had.
Kelly joined the White House press briefing Thursday to defend President Trump’s call to the widow of a fallen U.S. soldier who was close to Wilson. In defending Trump’s comments to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, which Wilson said were hurtful, Kelly criticized the congresswoman for being present for the call and then speaking out about it.
He also brought up a speech Wilson gave in 2015 for the FBI building dedication, claiming that she bragged about how she “got the money” for the building and calling her an “empty barrel.”
Wilson called Kelly’s description of her speech a “lie,” noting that funding for the building had been secured before she ever took office and that she only helped to pass legislation naming the building after two slain FBI agents. The video from the Sun Sentinel appears to support Wilson’s version of events.
In the speech, Wilson describes how she and congressional leaders worked together to pass legislation to name the FBI building, after the starting the process just four weeks prior to the dedication ceremony at the agency’s request. She said it was a “miracle” that the bill passed both chambers and was signed by President Barack Obama in time.
She said that her effort and that of her colleagues who also pushed for the bill “speaks to the respect that our Congress has for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the men and women who put their lives on the line every single day.”
She then honored FBI agents gathered in the room, as well as the two special agents who died in a gunfight in 1986, Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove, for whom the new building was named.
“We are proud of their sacrifice, the sacrifice for our nation. It is only fitting that their names be placed on the same mantel as the FBI,” she said in the speech.
Despite the release of the video, the White House stood by Kelly’s criticism of Wilson’s speech, again calling her an “empty barrel.”
“Gen. Kelly said he was ‘stunned’ that Rep. Wilson made comments at a building dedication honoring slain FBI agents about her own actions in Congress, including lobbying former President Obama on legislation. As Gen. Kelly pointed out, if you’re able to make a sacred act like honoring American heroes about yourself, you’re an empty barrel,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
Wilson did not note in the speech that she lobbied Obama. She only said that he signed the bill quickly.
After the Sun Sentinel released the video, Wilson touted on Twitter the “proof” for her account of the FBI building dedication speech.
proof
noun
noun: proof; plural noun: proofs
1.
evidence or argument establishing or helping to establish a fact or the truth of a statement. https://t.co/Wcj85lXjmD— Rep Frederica Wilson (@RepWilson) October 20, 2017
Watch the video of Wilson’s 2015 speech at the Sun Sentinel.
Responses need to be shorter.
“She’s a lying glory hogging Democrat bitch” (paraphrased) can’t be answered with something paragraphs long.
Maybe “Like all Trump flunkies, Kelly is lying”.
I suspect men will land on Mars before we hear any retractions from Kelly. He is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump Inc.
The MAGA crowd already got the message loud and clear: she’s a classic Reconstruction era corrupt black politician stealing white tax dollars for herself and her ghetto constituents. The narrative has been set in stone and no proof will dissuade them.
How many degrees of separation are we now from what the f*ck those soldiers were doing in Niger?
The Disorient Express is flying today …
I spent most of the morning arguing with a fool (which I admit makes me a fool too) about this. This person unquestionally believed Kelly because of his impeccable record and because he’s a decorated General.
Kelly truly messed up here. He should not have stood up there and lied like that; he had to know there would be video refuting what he said. And for what? All over trump not being man enough to apologize for how he came off to the widow and family.
Stunning.
(I might have to go ahead and get some popcorn today.This should be good)