“discretion is the better part of valor.”
Cute little saying, but what does it even mean? Discretion and valor aren’t connected logically.
He needs to say what people need to hear. He may be martyred for it, but we know he’s willing to sacrifice everything, including his life, for America. What America used to be, anyhow.
It's a line from Shakespeare, forget which play. It's spoken by fat, drunk, coward to excuse his previous act of fleeing the field of battle. In Shakespearean English, "Is the better part of" means "is greater than". "Discretion" refers to an act of choosing carefully. Shakespeare's character is saying, essentially, "It's better to be a live coward than a dead hero".