John Kelly Doesn’t Owe Us Anything
The current maelstrom surrounding President Trump and his alleged comments about troops, cemetery visits, and various related things has been brought to bear on a man who spent most of his life as one of those troops, before joining and then being jettisoned by the current administration.
“It’s Time for the Former General John Kelly to Speak Out About Trump’s Views on the Military” John Cassidy titled his piece in The New Yorker.
“General John Kelly Knows What Trump Said About Veterans — This Is Why Is He Can’t Remain Silent” declared Seth Cohen in Forbes.
Writing in the Washington Post, Ruth Marcus took the following approach:
So what should we make of Kelly’s silence? Ingrained habits of stoicism and convictions about duties of confidentiality and loyalty to a commander in chief, even this one, seem to be at work here. This is perplexing, to say the least. There are persuasive arguments on the other side about countervailing duties, including to warn the country about the man seeking a second term. But heroes are scarce among those who chose to serve Trump. Kelly’s tenure in “Crazytown,” as Bob Woodward quoted him in describing the Trump White House, included overseeing the implementation of the administration’s cruel policy of separating migrant children from their parents.
Nonetheless, if Kelly’s choice is silence, it is hard to interpret that as anything but tacit confirmation. If Goldberg were telling a false story about Kelly and his son, surely Kelly would offer some correction. Kelly does not often speak publicly of his son’s death, but he has done so in terms that are the compelling opposite of Trump’s transactional worldview.
“When you lose one in combat … in my opinion, there’s a pride that goes with it, that he didn’t have to be there doing what he was doing,” he said in 2016, shortly before his retirement from the military. It is precisely the selfless sacrifice that Trump is incapable of comprehending that provides Kelly with some solace.
All due respect to the redoubtable Ruth Marcus, but no, this is not perplexing in the least.
“I think we need to step back from the politics,” Kelly stated in an interview back in June. “I think we need to look harder at who we elect…I think we should look at people that are running for office and put them through the filter: What is their character like? What are their ethics?”
Things like character and ethics are best revealed over time. The latest furor over President Trump is once again centered around his character, and his conduct. Since the accusations are new twists on stories that are several years old, they are not surprising. With 73 years of very public book on Donald J. Trump, his character is open for all to see and examine. Even his own supporters, or at least the honest ones, know that paragon of virtue is not the calling card of the 45th president before or during his White House stint. If you want to know about President Trump, you have all the information you could ever need to make a decision by now.
Yet here we are again, with a slew of folks utterly convinced that one more revelation, one more headline, one more viral moment will be the silver bullet that finally ends Trump once and for all. They wish in vain, but their wishing will not be abated, and has been aimed in the direction of John Kelly. They have convinced themselves — and are trying to convince the rest of us — that the former Trump Chief of Staff can be the latest and greatest of such miracle cures to Trumpism. And if they don’t get it, that disappointment will also be John Kelly’s fault. So trapped in this moment, they demand of the retired general that they be appeased right now or else. “John Kelly will be remembered in the history books as both a shameless coward and as one of our nation’s biggest enablers of fascism” tweeted a campaign finance guy who I had to Google to figure out who he was.
What obtuse nonsense.
John Kelly’s refusal to make himself the center of the moment is consistent with everything we know about him. The 40 plus years of service to his country both in uniform and in trying, and failing, to be an influence on the Trump Administration tell of a man who thinks bigger than just of himself. “He wants to avoid taking a position that might be perceived as political,” retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni was quoted in Annie Karni’s New York Times article on Kelly’s silence. “I also think he takes to heart the commitment to confidentiality in matters related to their interaction with the president.” That everyone from Team Biden to Bill Kristol to the Twitterati want otherwise is not a consideration. Maybe that changes. Maybe the president’s broadside against him at a Friday press conference will entice him to fire back.
But I doubt it. Frankly, if Kelly confirmed hearing what the president allegedly said at the site of his son’s grave and he didn’t resign on the spot, it would change how I think about him some. But even if it is exactly the way The Atlantic is portraying it, John Kelly was there, it was his piece of sacred ground, and his judgement was to serve on anyway. His most personal and private pain, the ultimate sacrifice of his own son, would be an unfathomable weapon to wield against someone politically from his point of view. Who the hell are we to question such a man on such a subject? We will anyway, but without a sliver of understanding of the complexities of spending your life serving the country your own son died for.
John Kelly is no saint. He is a man with flaws, just like President Trump, just like all the talking heads demanding action from him, just like you and me. But what differentiates him from the president is exactly what keeps him mostly silent: John Kelly’s default is to serve others above himself. What constitutes honor for the old Marine cannot be made in the next 60 days before the election, but it could be harmed. The General in him knows 60 days between now and the election contrasted to his 70 years of life is very little. The father of a fallen son knows there are things far more important than the current news cycle. The Marine who first served under President Nixon knows that administrations come and go, but the country must endure for as long as we possibly can. John Kelly the man knows John Kelly better than anyone, and knows the most important consideration of all to this current tempest: John Kelly is not Donald Trump. Reacting against all your principles, all that you’ve said privately and publicly, all that you’ve ever stood for over a slight — however grave or justified– just for the glory of a fleeting moment from folks who don’t care about you anyway, is something Donald Trump does. Not John Kelly.
In fact, unless he completely changes his mind, he has already given us his answer. Not on Trump, but on the bigger question of his mindset about what he has done, and if it was worth it. In that June 5th interview, even knowing how he left the Trump administration and the harsh words, and 40 plus years in uniform, the death of his son, the questioning of his own character by folks who never had to make the calls and decisions he had to, the question came and the answer reveals much:
Kelly touted the founding fathers’ vision for checks and balances and separation of powers – credited the strength of U.S. institutions supported by the constitution. Finally, asked whether he would serve in a future administration, Kelly revealed, “I would serve,” noting he comes from a family of service.
John Kelly has done his bit, and then some, for his country. He has given more than he ever took in return. And he doesn’t owe us a damn thing.
I think this is exactly right. If everything we have learned about Trump’s character over the last five years is not enough to dissuade you from voting for him, then John Kelly saying “yeah, he said those things” is not going to push you over that line.Report
How did John Kelly’s name get associated with the current nonsense? The records prove the Atlantic story is false, as does the ten or fifteen officials who were there who went on the record saying it was completely false, including John Bolton, who says if it was true, he would have given it an entire chapter in his book slamming Trump, which he didn’t because it wasn’t, to his knowledge, true. That’s at least 10 people on the record saying the story is completely false, and zero people on the record saying it has even a grain of truth. I figure some up-and-coming radio DJ pranked a gullible reporter.
What is revealing is how fast Biden came out to attack Trump for allegedly saying something mean when he won’t say spit about his own people burning down US cities.Report
We know that McCain called Trump a loser.
We know that he laughed about dodging the Vietnam draft.
Only Kelly and Trump know what was said between them.
No records prove anything was false but keep trying.Report
Actually, FOIA records refute The Atlantic story. The story contends that Trump contemptuously cancelled his cemetery visit. Records show that he was upset because the military folks cancelled his visit, one he really wanted to make. Thus, the total premise of The Atlantic story is completely false.
Which might be why Kelly hasn’t gone on the record to say a darn thing.Report
Q.E.D aboveReport
Well said.Report
This is another area that the media has unwittingly destroyed itself and helped enable Trump. You can’t constantly bray about norm-breaking by the administration then at the drop of a hat call for norm-breaking by others against the administration. Failure to grasp this is one of the primary reasons Trump is still in the race.Report
Schrodinger’s presidency. I am reminded of the line from a book “I have fallen into a hole that has replaced my soul.”
A very nice piece Andrew.Report
Thank you AaronReport
They’ve never tried to hide who they are. From Junior’s book, describing his thoughts on driving past Arlington National Cemetery:
The cherry on top is that they didn’t do that.Report
Yup complete and total lie. The literal opposite of the truth. It’s their “style” and tactic.Report
He doesn’t owe us anything. But he he put himself in position to know lots of things. It was his choice. His current no comment is akin to observing a nice trash fire and offering to toss his oily rags in. . A strong denial would be clear; but no. A yeah of course he said that because that is who is; no not that.
Would the prez who cheated charities out of money and had to pay back a couple million really say bad things about vets?
Everybody says nothing matters about trump, we all know he is scum, so why bother. Except that isn’t true. Granted nothing is going to change millions of peoples view is one swell foop. But what he does matters. People were talking about his post convention bump. Why? Because sometimes those things matter. They are going to debate and some of the people right here will sure as hell talk about what he and biden do. If Kelly or Mattis or whoever else came out to say the allegations were true it would change votes and matter. What people actually mean when they says X won’t matter, is that it doesn’t matter to them. Many trumpers don’t care if he said what he is accused of. They will overlook it and finding a way to ignore it is easiest then making up some bs excuse.Report
No, we’ll ignore it because it never happened. Keep in mind, in 2012 The Atlantic for focused like a laser on proving that Sarah Palin wasn’t Trig Palin’s mother. They go nuts at election time and put out ridiculous smear pieces.
First off, the story has already been flatly refuted by at least ten people, on the record, and refuted by FOIA information about the day in question. The Atlantic wasn’t smart enough to set the story in a place where there weren’t as many witnesses, and where there wouldn’t be documentation that would refute their key facts.
Second, the story doesn’t make sense based on human behavior, much less Trump behavior. It’s like running a story about Obama calling black people “a bunch of worthless, swamp runnin’, drug sniffin’, moronic negroes” (with liberal use of the N-word), and setting the tirade in a meeting with a dozen black leaders. It has him saying the highly offensive things in a room full of people who are “most likely to be offended.” If true, it would have leaked immediately, and more importantly, if Obama ran around saying that kind of thing to a room full of black leaders, he certainly would’ve been saying that kind of thing in front of everybody.
In fact, a room full of black leaders is the last place Obama would’ve said such a thing. Saying it in front of Mitch McConnell and Newt Gingrich would’ve been more likely – because normal humans take at least some care not to offend their immediate audience. A white athlete who never says racially derogatory things won’t say any racially derogatory things, offhand, in a locker room full of black players, and that be the only time he people hear about it. He would’ve been saying those things all the time when the black players weren’t in the room, making it trivially easy to find tons of corroborating examples.
Like my hypothetical Obama story, The Atlantic‘s hit piece fails that basic test of logic. Not only is it nothing but a mindless political hit piece, it’s not even a halfway-competent mindless political hit piece. All it’s done is draw derision from normal people and make the press, and Joe Biden, look like blithering fools for giving it the slightest credence. It one thing to make the press look like a bunch of evil hacks, but this makes them look like a bunch of stupid evil hacks.Report
Remind me, how did you explain away trump having to pay back 2 million bucks for cheating charities?
Just rinse and repeat.Report
And that has what to do with The Atlantic‘s crazy story?
You see, Trump spent almost his entire life as a Democrat, running around with Bill Clinton and tons of other famous draft dodgers and anti-war activists, people who’d he’d be a hundred times more likely to let loose with than he would a room full of career military officers. Yet neither Bill Clinton nor anyone else on the left reported that Trump said horrible things about US troops. Therefore, even aside from all the on-the-record flat refutations of The Atlantic story, we can also conclude that it’s unlikely Trump said anything remotely like what The Atlantic claimed.
It’s fake news – made up by lying journalists who were absolutely desperate to divert attention away from Biden’s crashing poll numbers and embarrassing appearance in Kenosha, where all of forty people turned out to see him.Report
” in 2012 The Atlantic for focused like a laser on proving that Sarah Palin wasn’t Trig Palin’s mother.”
First of all, the conspiracy theory was in *2008*. Second, it was run by a few blogger, not Atlantic reporting.Report
Great piece, Andrew. I’m not going to lie, I’d like nothing more than for Kelly to step forward and reveal what he knows, but while it might make ripples among the opposition, it won’t dent the hide of his supporters one bit.Report
Thank you sirReport
John Kelly has done his bit, and then some, for his country. He has given more than he ever took in return. And he doesn’t owe us a damn thing.
At the very least Kelly owes us an apology for kidnapping kids and “permanently separating” them from their parents.Report
John Kelly has done his bit, and then some, for his country.
*That* is John Kelly’s legacy.Report
Yeah, but he made money off it. 🙂
Elizabeth Warren Slams John Kelly for Private Prison Connection in Policy ProposalReport
For those keeping score at home, this story isn’t even twitching anymore. Even the editor of “The Atlantic” went on CNN and said that maybe the White House version is the one that’s true, and started casting blame towards the journalistic practice of using of anonymous sources – and then pointed to the Washington Post’s stories that also used anonymous sources.Report
Heck, I’m old enough to remember when a sitting President accusing the Pentagon generals of being war profiteers would have been a story with legs.Report
They’ve been saying that since Washington. The Founders didn’t trust standing armies. Eisenhower coined the term “military industrial complex” and warned that it was a potentially huge threat to peace. Trump knows that being the first President in modern memory who hasn’t started a bunch of foreign wars might not make him very popular with certain folks.Report
When you criticize the military- industrial complex and the capitalist warmongers, this liberal is triggered.
So very, very triggered.
If you start talking about the bankers and corporate pigs I may need a safe space.Report
Most likely a broken clock kind of thing when Trump is saying it. Still, is it too cynical to believe that the issue has been dropped because deep down everyone knows he’s kind of right?Report
Trump isn’t saying anything actually.
He’s doing that car salesman thing where he just keeps rambling and saying whatever needs to be said at the moment, even if it contradicts what he said 5 minutes before.
If he’s miffed at a general, then suddenly they are all stupid and incompetent warmongers, if one of them flatters him then they are great heroes.
Normal people say things that express their inner convictions and beliefs.
Trump has none, and so nothing he says matters.Report
Trump is blathering about this because of 1) the Military Times poll that showed officers didn’t like him and/or 2) he is trying to portray himself as caring for the people he has been calling losers. Those are the most likely reasons. He isn’t even a broken clock on this because he has history of actions that go against what he is saying. He has repeatedly pushed for large arms deals and increased military spending. There is no reason to think he believes what he is saying so how can he even be right? It’s all just a bs distraction.Report
But he hasn’t called them losers. He called John McCain a loser, but that’s because John McCain was a loser.
The issue was dropped because 19 people went on the record refuting The Atlantic‘s story. Some tried to hang on, claiming that maybe he only said it in front of General Kelly, but then General Kelly’s own aide went on the record to say that the story was absolutely false.
So now the Democrats are scrambling for another unsubstantiated rumor so they can attack him over something else. If this is the best they can do, and it likely is because it was a planned and coordinated attack, Biden is doomed. 1980’s college interns were more competent than whoever is running this crop of political operatives.Report