Posted on 12/30/2018 5:36:31 AM PST by Eddie01
[snip]
...he presided over some of the Trump administration’s most controversial immigration and security policies.
In the phone interview Friday, Kelly defended his rocky tenure, arguing that it is best measured by what the president did not do when Kelly was at his side.
It was only after Kelly’s departure was confirmed Dec. 8, for example, that Trump abruptly announced the pullout of all U.S. troops from Syria and half the 14,000 troops from Afghanistan, two moves that Kelly had opposed.
Kelly’s supporters say he stepped in to block or divert the president on dozens of matters large and small. They credit him, in part, for persuading Trump not to pull U.S. forces out of South Korea, or withdraw from NATO, as he had threatened.
[snip]
“It’s never been: The president just wants to make a decision based on no knowledge and ignorance,” Kelly said. “You may not like his decision, but at least he was fully informed on the impact.”
Kelly allowed that spending nearly every waking minute of 15-hour days with a president seemingly inundated with one crisis after another has been a “bone-crushing hard job, but you do it.”
“I’m guarded by the Secret Service. I can’t even go get a beer,” he quipped.
Trump sometimes pressed his advisors on the limits of his authority under the law, often asking Kelly, “‘Why can’t we do it this way?’”
But Trump never ordered him to do anything illegal, Kelly stressed, “because we wouldn’t have.”
“If he had said to me, ‘Do it, or you’re fired,’” Kelly said he would have resigned.
“I told the president the last thing in my view that you need in the chief of staff is someone that looks at every issue through a political lens,” Kelly said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
During the first 6 months of Trump's administration, Sundance/CTH loved these globalists.
In addition, he was a HUGE supporter of RyanCare aka "obamaCareLite"..and not surprising since Sundance supported Hellary in 2008.
Generals are like the rest of the country....some are conservative patriots and some are “New World Order” leftist who do not agree with the constitution!!! Westly Clark comes to mind!!!
‘A bone- crushing hard job, but you do it’ Kelly
‘This job is hard’ Obama
Boo Hoo. Whiners are losers.
I guess Kelly couldn’t even wait to have a book written for him to bash POTUS.
Sounds like he wants kudos for interfering with our President. That will get him on CNN for sure. *spit*
Who is he to think he knows better? He was not elected. What a snake.
“Kelly defended his rocky tenure, arguing that it is best measured by what the president did not do when Kelly was at his side.”
Weasel was deep state, like McMaster and Mattis.
Brings to mind the whimp Wesley Clark.
No, I don’t actually trust Sundance either. Though I respect the general quality of the blog he does and some of his analysis.
My reference was to Trump still pulling in DS swamp creatures—which Barr sure seems to be. (Down there with Poppy in Latin America in Poppy’s CIA drug and gun-running days.)
A bone crushing hard job?
A sizable percentage of America is laughing their ass off after reading that.
Not one of you would say what you are saying to his face.
Remember not only has he served with honor and integrity but he lost his own son who served as well.. so remember that.
Anyhow this is just a hit piece from a leftist rag making it look like there was serious discord and bad feelings between president Trump.. and general Kelly.
Don’t waste energy on it..
I wish he would consider Col West.
It could just as well be that the L.A. Times is playing politics with his departure. Either way, his leaving is totally normal and the President has the option of inquiring as to how getting around an obstacle might be accomplished while still operating within the law. I seriously doubt he was the first nor will be the last President to do so either.
Obama had five White House Chiefs of Staff:
Rahm Emanuel, Pete Rouse, Bill Daley, Jack Lew and Dennis McDonough
That’s one every 19 or so months.Where were the ‘White House chaos’ stories?
Could not have said it better.
Generals make horrible politicians. Generals who are political are horrible generals.
Ha! And here you are writing what you said on an internet forum. You, me and others don't have the luxury to say it to his face because we're commenting here on FR.
I don't much care for people who work for someone and then back-hand them as they leave the job. He should have shown some class and just kept his mouth shut instead of giving a self-serving interview to the leftist LA Times.
Thank you for your honorable service to our country Gen. Kelly and condolences regarding the loss of your son.
And the got their appointments during a time of extreme politicization of the upper ranks
Interesting. The right politics, for sure. I know he can be a bit intemperate in his speech and don’t know how he (or anyone, really) would hold up dealing with Javanka.
Mulaney is very smart, adept in dealing with people, and knows the government game inside and out.
But I can see how you’d like the idea of the tough military guy who would demand things are done right and wouldn’t take guff from anyone.
I realize your question is rhetorical and needs no answer, but a better question is: Where has journalism gone to? It began disappearing the 70s, by the mid 90s it had completely disappeared. By 2000 journalists no longer even hid behind the pretense that they were presenting news, and had totally committed themselves to presenting propaganda for agendas they personally supported. Most recipients of that propaganda were just not savvy enough to understand or even recognize that fact.
My last battalion commander in Germany was promoted to full colonel shortly after leaving command, where he took a C-3 air defense artillery battalion to C-1 in about 18 months.
I remember how he said he was proud of that promotion, because getting a star is more dependent on politics than most anything else.
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