... recognized (fairly? accurately?) as "one of the few adults in the room". john kelly had a mixed performance in trump's white house and had had a mixed performance since, and here is a big interview in The Atlantic Magazine. Many will question why it took so long, and others (trump defenders) will ignore or belittle what he says. One thing fore sure, trump will now attack kelly, as he has all the others that speak out against him. Here's what kelly said about Lt. Col. Vindman... Link to article: https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...exander-vindman-north-korea-and-trump/606496/
unfortunately, the adults in the room cannot/won't speak up while they were in the room, and there are less and less of them left, if there are any left at all. Now you have Barr and Pompeo, once again MAGA.
Kelly left Trump with a message of "don't surround yourself with yes men or you will get impeached". Kelly even though I disagree with him on many of his beliefs and ideologies, was one of the last adults left in high level positions in the administration. Kelly was replaced with Mick Mulvaney. From stern disiolined general to bootlicker.
And since trump survived impeachment by avoiding mulvaney testify, perhaps mulvaney's job is safe again. But there were lots of rumors that mulvaney would soon be replaced by congressman mark meadows, an even worse bootlicker.
During trump's "acquittal celebration", meadows stood up at the end said: "I just wanted to say that this reflection today is a small reflection of the kind of support you have all across the country. We’ve got your back."
I have been incredibly critical of John Kelly's term in the White House, in which helped devise and enact odious and destructive policies and enabled the rot of Trumpism. Worst of all he helped kill a DACA deal that would have made everybody - everybody - better off. I said this once: It appears now he is honestly having remorse about it, for which as a human being, I sympathize & empathize. But, I wish he would have done more, sooner, as apparently he does too, now.
This is a really hard thing to judge. We don't know what he did and didn't do in the White House. We do know from reporting that he and Trump fought a lot because he told him no. I understand the logic people have where they think "I can be the guiding hand here. I can steer a bad leader away from some of the bad things he wants to do. That may mean I have to do some bad things along the way that I'll regret, but it would be worse if I wasn't here." Like if you could go back in time and be Hitler's right hand man and you would be able to prevent the holocaust but you'd have to sign off on the invasion of Poland and all of the other horrible stuff that Nazis did, would you do it? I don't begrudge anyone for either answer to this question. I know "collaborator" is a really horrible word and sometimes that is justified, but sometimes it isn't. A lot of the people who have worked for Trump have been pretty clear that they thought they could stop him from doing his worst instincts even if they couldn't stop him from all of his bad ones.
... and here comes the trump attacks... everyone who gains a integrity gene and speaks out against trump is automatically a terrible or incompetent person. Though no one asks trump why he keeps hiring these terrible and incompetent people if he only "hires the best people". And I love the side comment about general kelly's wife (and the imaginary conversation). trump always goes after spouses and other family members...
Very good take. It's a tough thing when you believe you can guide someone like Trump; and then realize you can't because he just isn't playing by the same set of rules that everyone else is. This especially goes for someone like Kelly or Mattis who got where they were by managing people and politics...you don't make general without doing both and being good at it. Trump's just a different breed...someone that has no problem doing anything and everything to get what he wants...no matter the costs to anyone around him.
Mr Kelly where was your voice the last 6 months when Vindman was attacked for doing the right thing? Where were you? I give this man no credit now for speaking out now when he could have done this from the beginning
