Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:56 am
Trump is trying to silence yet another witness to his incompetence and danger to the freedoms that define the old America before Trump.
Trump threatened John Kelly that he had an obligation to “keep his mouth shut” after Kelly, one of the people he hired and said was one of the best people, eviscerated Trump and his policies and the harm he is causing America.
After Republican former White House Chief of Staff and ex-Department of Homeland Secretary John Kelly went on a tear against Trumpism Wednesday evening – a year after his removal from Trump’s White House – the President claimed Thursday morning that he had to fire John Kelly because he was incompetent.
Trump called firing people for not going along with his lies and abuses of power and betrayal of this country “draining the swamp”:
When I terminated John Kelly, which I couldn’t do fast enough, he knew full well that he was way over his head. Being Chief of Staff just wasn’t for him. He came in with a bang, went out with a whimper, but like so many X’s, he misses the action & just can’t keep his mouth shut,.
….which he actually has a military and legal obligation to do. His incredible wife, Karen, who I have a lot of respect for, once pulled me aside & said strongly that “John respects you greatly. When we are no longer here, he will only speak well of you.” Wrong!
DRAIN THE SWAMP! We want bad people out of our government!
It seems to have escaped Trump’s less than nimble mind that he created this swamp and claimed these were all of the best people.
Notice that Trump, the five time draft dodger, is trying to tell a retired U.S. Marine Corps General what his military obligation is. No, Kelly is not obligated to keep his mouth shut.
Mr. Trump cannot stand it when he can’t control what people are allowed to say in public. Let that sink in because it is a very dangerous emotional state for the president of an allegedly free country, and it is why he uses the levers of government to attack those who speak out against him.
Kelly’s tear covered a lot of ground, from defending the press, saying Fox News viewers are not informed, defending the character of immigrants crossing our borders and sneering at Trump’s North Korea fail to Trump’s attempt to bribe Ukraine to help him cheat in another election.
The Atlantic’s Peter Nichols reported on Kelly’s tear into Trump, saying Kelly blasted Trump’s “perfect phone call” as not perfect, confirming what all of America other than Fox News viewers and Senate Republicans pretend to not know, which is that Trump did in fact condition the Ukraine aid on their helping him cheat in 2020.
Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, said that Vindman is blameless and was simply following the training he’d received as a soldier; migrants are “overwhelmingly good people” and “not all rapists”; and Trump’s decision to condition military aid to Ukraine on an investigation into his political rival Joe Biden upended long-standing U.S. policy.
In the age of Trumpism, the truth is punishable by firing and worse. And so Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was fired for telling the truth.
The worst thing Kelly did to Trump was warn that Fox News, Trump’s propaganda outlet, is not real news.
“The media, in my view — and I feel very strongly about this — is not the enemy of the people,” Kelly told the audience. “We need a free media. That said, you have to be careful about what you are watching and reading, because the media has taken sides. So if you only watch Fox News, because it’s reinforcing what you believe, you are not an informed citizen.”
With his attacks on our institutions, free press, free speech, and the very rule of law, Trump is destroying this country from the inside out so rapidly it appears to be the only thing at which he has ever excelled.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
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