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Trump: 'Robert E. Lee was a great general'
The Hill ^ | 10/12/18 | CHRIS MILLS RODRIGO

Posted on 10/12/2018 7:13:42 PM PDT by yesthatjallen

President Trump praised Confederate Geader Robert E. Lee as "a great general" on Friday during a campaign rally in Lebanon, Ohio.

"So Robert E. Lee was a great general. And Abraham Lincoln developed a phobia. He couldn’t beat Robert E. Lee," Trump said before launching into a monologue about Lee, Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.

"He was going crazy. I don’t know if you know this story. But Robert E. Lee was winning battle after battle after battle. And Abraham Lincoln came home, he said, 'I can’t beat Robert E. Lee,'" Trump said.

"And he had all of his generals, they looked great, they were the top of their class at West Point. They were the greatest people. There’s only one problem — they didn’t know how the hell to win. They didn’t know how to fight. They didn’t know how," he continued.

Trump went on to say, multiple times, that Grant had a drinking problem, saying that the former president "knocked the hell out of everyone" as a Union general.

"Man was he a good general. And he’s finally being recognized as a great general," Trump added.

— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 13, 2018 Trump has drawn criticism for his defense of Confederate statues, including those of Robert E. Lee.

He drew widespread condemnation last year following a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., saying that white nationalist protesters were there to oppose the removal of a "very, very important" statue.

"They were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,” Trump said at the time. “This week it's Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”

Trump, speaking at another rally in Ohio last year, said that he can be one of the “most presidential” presidents to hold office. "…With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office,” he said to a crowd in Youngstown.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: bloggers; civilwar; confederacy; dixie; donaldtrump; robertelee; trump
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To: EarlyBird

That’s true. He was an honorable man and took that fork in the road. He could have had any position he wanted in the Union Army.


41 posted on 10/12/2018 7:34:04 PM PDT by laplata (The Left/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: Zhang Fei

—And that was Lee’s downfall - he ran out of men and resources.-—

And made the crucial mistake at Gettysburg, thinking his men were almost invincible because up to that point he’d never been beaten.

Longstreet tried to tell him, but he didn’t listen.


42 posted on 10/12/2018 7:35:03 PM PDT by StoneRainbow68
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To: Kickass Conservative
"Obviously the word Context is not taught in Journalism School."

If context is taught in Journalism School, they're taught how to ignore or manipulate the context to suit their purpose.

43 posted on 10/12/2018 7:36:36 PM PDT by SkiKnee
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To: datricker

You are wise.


44 posted on 10/12/2018 7:36:45 PM PDT by laplata (The Left/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: yesthatjallen

saying that white nationalist protesters were there to oppose the removal of a “very, very important” statue.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The event at Charlottesville was staged to make ANYONE who opposed the erasure of American history be labeled a white nationalist.
This began with Nikki Haley and the Battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia in South Carolina after a murder that had nothing to do with Civil War history.


45 posted on 10/12/2018 7:36:46 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Pete Dovgan

Until 15 years ago every American who went to school knew Lee was a great general. In Trump’s speech he made the statement about Lee to emphasize how great a general Grant (a local Ohio boy born 40 miles from Lebanon) was. Of course any modern journalist will tell you both generals were horrible human beings since they were straight, white, Christian men. In reality Lee was much the better general but Grant had the men and the will to feed them into the meat grinder which was necessary to defeat Lee.


46 posted on 10/12/2018 7:37:32 PM PDT by hardspunned
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To: yesthatjallen

I’m in the middle of a book about Lee.

Lee was the military advisor to Jefferson Davis.

The Union Army was about ready to take Richmond when Lee took over the Army of Northern Virginia.

I’m not a real Civil War buff.

Lee was a winner.


47 posted on 10/12/2018 7:38:24 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: livius

That’s right. The left cannot tolerate honor and goodness in exceptional Americans. They always have to take their little jabs.


48 posted on 10/12/2018 7:38:46 PM PDT by laplata (The Left/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: Paladin2

49 posted on 10/12/2018 7:39:34 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: hardspunned

—In reality Lee was much the better general but Grant had the men and the will to feed them into the meat grinder which was necessary to defeat Lee.-—

Grant had the harder job, too. Because to win he had to completely destroy Lee. As long as Lee kept his army together and they weren’t captured, he could keep it going.


50 posted on 10/12/2018 7:40:00 PM PDT by StoneRainbow68
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To: BradyLS
Grant was commanding a professionally trained army...Lee was commanding an army that was fully half a rag tag group of men defending their homes. That's why Lee and his tactics is still studied at West Point!!!
51 posted on 10/12/2018 7:41:01 PM PDT by ontap
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To: datricker

The contrast between Lee and Grant reminds me of Hannibal and Scipio. Not a perfect parallel by any stretch. I could be convinced that Lee was the better general between the two. But Scipio was the one to finally beat him.

Part of Grant’s genius was his mastery of the all the various resources that were put at his disposal. Other parts included organiziation—especially where unorthodox solutions were required to solve difficult problems—and dogged determination.

Lee also had organizational prowess, a knack for developing fanatical loyalty, and knowing the measure of his opponents better than most of them knew of themselves. If time and space could gained by going over to the offensive, he would do it.


52 posted on 10/12/2018 7:41:05 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: yesthatjallen

The whole point was Grant being born in Ohio. He also mentioned Neil Armstrong and the Wright brothers. The President was correct in his history.


53 posted on 10/12/2018 7:41:31 PM PDT by ALX
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To: laplata

Honor, was the first word or thought that came to mind.

It’s a concept that requires depth and breadth, all of which is being destroyed by the post modernist sycophants that claim to know a better way.


54 posted on 10/12/2018 7:43:00 PM PDT by Zeneta
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To: HamiltonJay

Lee was a great general. Read about his accomplishments during the Mexican War. It involves a volcano field.


55 posted on 10/12/2018 7:43:08 PM PDT by txrefugee
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To: BradyLS

-—Part of Grant’s genius was his mastery of the all the various resources that were put at his disposal. Other parts included organiziation—especially where unorthodox solutions were required to solve difficult problems—and dogged determination.——

Yes. Also, Grant was incredibly cool under pressure. He almost always knew exactly what to do in any situation, and if he was surprised, he never panicked and made a poor decision.


56 posted on 10/12/2018 7:43:35 PM PDT by StoneRainbow68
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To: Zeneta

Yes, they’re doing all they can to destroy all that’s good and decent and honorable. The battle between good and evil continues.


57 posted on 10/12/2018 7:49:49 PM PDT by laplata (The Left/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: blueunicorn6

Yes, his nickname given by his troops and newspapers early in the war was Granny Lee. He wasn’t as brash as his predecessor, Johnston. That nickname quickly faded away during the 7 Days Battles where Lee roundly defeated superior Union forces and forced McClellan to give up on his Peninsula Campaign.


58 posted on 10/12/2018 7:53:29 PM PDT by TADSLOS (I hate Russian Dolls. They are so full of themselves.)
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To: laplata

Lee probably would have win the war in three years (and perhaps in two) and we might never have heard of Grant. Albert Sidney Johnston and Stonewall Jackson wound have given Lee trouble, But Lee would have been more decisive than MacClellan. He would have understood the vast resources at his command and taken great risks sooner that other Union generals refused to do until 1863 or ‘64. He would have suffered a lost battle if it meant taking Richmond.

...But that is why Lee fought for the Confederacy. He couldn’t imagine doing that to his native state.


59 posted on 10/12/2018 7:54:12 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: laplata

The challenge in this battle is trying to figure out how to fight back against a political force that is willfully ignorant.


60 posted on 10/12/2018 7:55:23 PM PDT by Zeneta
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