Let’s not staff a White House with generals ever again

This is a doozy asking if politicians and generals are above the law and immune from being questioned. Is a serious piece and deserves serious considerations about us and our basic values. Trump is getting WORSE......

In defending his boss, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly gratuitously attacked Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.), derisively referred to her as being like “empty barrels,” misrepresented her conduct at a dedication of an FBI building and, even when film of the event showed his characterization to be utterly false, did not apologize. Kelly deemed it appropriate to restrict questions to reporters with a connection to a Gold Star family, as if one group of Americans (and their readers and viewers) is more worthy than another. However, when White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders warned reporters not to criticize Kelly (or his slander of Wilson), the administration took on the creepy aura of a military junta.

The Post reported:

Instead of backing down, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders piled on Friday and said Kelly was justified in accusing the lawmaker of grandstanding, despite erring on the facts. “As we say in the South: all hat, no cattle,” Sanders said of Wilson, an African American who is known for wearing brightly colored cowboy hats.

Sanders also attempted to shift the debate away from Kelly’s inaccuracies to instead focus on his personal integrity.

“If you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general, I think that that’s something highly inappropriate,” she said.

No one in service of our country is beyond reproach or immune from criticism. Generals get criticized and every day must answer to politicians, who in turn are responsible to the public. (Trump, by the way, routinely demeaned generals — whom he claimed had been “reduced to rubble” — in the presidential campaign.)

We don’t believe in the divine right of kings or the infallibility of military or civilian leaders.

And Kelly, now in a civilian role, certainly should not be permitted to deploy his military service record, no matter how admirable that may have been, to deflect criticism and shut up the press.

Kelly and Trump seem to actually have a lot in common. They both display disdain for the press and contempt for critics. Kelly rails at treatment of (“sacred”) women but enthusiastically serves a president who serially insults and abuses women. Rather than address criticism, Kelly and Trump both like to pull rank, treat critics as their lessers and react indignantly when anyone questions their motives.

CNN’s Jake Tapper had it exactly right in his appearance Friday afternoon. “When a reporter pointed out just minutes ago that Kelly had gotten his facts wrong about this speech, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said one of the most shocking things I’ve ever heard from that podium — she suggested that journalists cannot question generals,” he said. “That’s not how we do it here in the United States.” But then, Trump has made destruction of democratic values and institutions a feature of his presidency.

The press puts out “fake” news. The special prosecutor is on a witch hunt. The courts have no power to second-guess the president on the travel ban. It’s all part of Trump’s imperiousness and determination to delegitimize all independent sources of information and criticism. Kelly, rather than restrain these authoritarian impulses, fuels them.



continued

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...h-generals-ever-again/?utm_term=.2d95961e64ba

 

General Petraeus has indicated that all Generals are fair game including Gen. Kelly.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/petraeus-hits-back-at-sarah-sanders-generals-are-fair-game

 

I guess its post opinions in current events day here on PF?

 

Thank God for Petraeus......

Retired four-star Gen. David Petraeus on Sunday hit back at White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders’ suggestion that it would be “highly inappropriate” to question a four-star general. “I think we’re all fair game,” Petraeus, the former CIA director, said on ABC’s This Week. “We, in uniform, protect the rights of those to criticize us, frankly … we are fiercely protective of the rights of our Americans to express themselves, even if that includes criticizing us.”

Sanders was referring to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a retired four-star general himself, who defended the president from criticism over his phone call with a Gold Star widow by slamming Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) using incorrect information. Sanders defended Kelly by suggesting that four-star generals are not to be questioned.

 

Forced to resign in shame for spilling national security secrets to his mistress...

 

These are current matters.. pressing matters. This isn't a dictatorship and we don't have to walk in lock step to the tune of lying woman haters and race baiters.

 

Wellllllllll it would seem that on P.F., it is NEVER wrong when leftists do it. But we are supposed to get excited when the notoriously Left-Allied The Washington Post delivers up a standard Right of Center bashing article? The only interesting bit is that they went full bore Daily Kos in orientation on this one. Their over all circulation must really be slipping in that they have totally ceased any pretense at this point at being anything other than just one more reliable voice of political propaganda for the DNC. Sad that. Once upon a time they were almost a real newspaper. Meh, and so it goes.

 

Its an opinion blog.

 

So Petraeus wasn't above the law, was he?

 

Kelly is a DISGRACE to the uniform of the Armed Services.

 

Sarah Huckabee said we don't question generals NOT the Washington Post.

 

You mean Barack Obama. Yeah that was a pretty grim period of time; but that inveterate race-baiter and race-agitator and fake feminist is no longer president; and so no worries.

 

Missing the context..... Hat lady made the death of one of his men political. Then Hat lady claimed he was racist...

 

I see nowhere in the OP where anyone said Generals are "above the law".

Typical lies from the left.

 

Your bait is soggy.

 

Like you -- a total leftist -- and The Washington Post -- a notorious propaganda outlet for the DNC -- wouldn't be taking anything out of context in regards to something said by someone Right of Center? Hahahaha! Thanks for the chuckle.

 

I wouldn't go that far, but he has lost his compass & can't find north anymore.

 

Except the topic isn't about his resignation.

 

If Kelly thinks women are sacred why is he working for a woman shaming, P**** grabber like Trump?

Are you afraid of something? Afraid to think?

 

Butthurt libs on anonymous blogs are not "pressing matters".

 

Who suggested he was?

The OP is a strawman. Sanders comment was taken out of context, regarding debating a gold star former 4 star general on what is appropriate to say to a gold star family, and the congresswoman used the opportunity to egrandize herself over the naming, not funding, in that speech... and the funding in different ones. The obsession over this issue is exemplary of the lefts desire to attack our president regardless of truth or intent.

 

LOL, still defending the congress critter that used this family for political gain?

 

Lately, that has been EVERY day.

As the RW constantly breaks the Rules of thread creation to throw their overtly partisan shade at (their obsessed over bogeyman) the Big Bad "Left".

Oh, and on topic, Kelly continues to be a DISGRACE.

 

http://www.politicalforum.com/index...ly-has-always-been-a-hard-right-bully.517096/

Yes the same poster has posted pretty much the same opinion TWICE now recently.. So whats the deal mods? Is this the Margot rant section now or is it current events?

 

Its neither current nor pressing, because the only solution isn't available until 2020. You folks should come up with a platform, even going full socialist is a better plan than endless whining and crying...