Donald Trump is a Liar - Part 3

The take on what the Liar-in-Chief has done since he was first confronted with the fact that he had not acknowledged the death of four U.S. Army Green Berets in Niger has varied widely.

The editorial board of the Los Angeles Times wrote a piece titled "Our president can't even get a condolence call right."  They wrote:

"President Trump did not reach out quickly to the families of the fallen, and a question about why he had not spoken publicly about the deaths drew an all-too-familiar response from the president: lies, braggadocio and an attack on his predecessor."

Retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, who was the official spokesperson of the U. S. State Department during the Obama administration, and is now a CNN National Security Analyst penned an opinion piece for CNN titled "Stop the Politics and Honor the Fallen."  He wrote:

"His (referring to Trump) job, when required, is to send men and women into harm's way.  And should those men and women not survive the mission, his other job is to make sure they return home in a dignified, professional manner to families that will experience not only our gratitude but our conditional support.  President George W. Bush referred to this as being the "Comforter-in-Chief and it's probably the most important duty any occupier of the Oval Office obeys.

Mr. Trump has been derelict in that duty today."

We will get back to the most recent words from President George W. Bush in a moment, but first we need to examine some remarks from General John F. Kelley from today.

"So some Presidents have elected to call. All Presidents, I believe, have elected to send letters. If you elect to call a family like this, it is about the most difficult thing you could imagine. There’s no perfect way to make that phone call.

When I took this job and talked to President Trump about how to do it, my first recommendation was he not do it because it’s not the phone call that parents, family members are looking forward to. It’s nice to do, in my opinion, in any event.

He asked me about previous Presidents, and I said, I can tell you that President Obama, who was my Commander-in-Chief when I was on active duty, did not call my family. That was not a criticism. That was just to simply say, I don’t believe President Obama called. That’s not a negative thing. I don’t believe President Bush called in all cases. I don’t believe any President, particularly when the casualty rates are very, very high — that Presidents call. But I believe they all write.

So when I gave that explanation to our President three days ago, he elected to make phone calls in the cases of four young men who we lost in Niger at the earlier part of this month. But then he said, how do you make these calls? If you’re not in the family, if you’ve never worn the uniform, if you’ve never been in combat, you can’t even imagine how to make that call. I think he very bravely does make those calls."

I do not believe that Donald J. Trump deliberately attempted to disrespect Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Army SGT La David Johnson with his words.  General Kelly has a point that the usual protocol for such phone calls is that they are a private matter between the President and the family member being called.  But it was the choice of Myeshia Johnson to have the other people around her hear the phone call and that was her choice to make.

Given that the Liar-in-Chief was attempting to paraphrase words given to him by General Kelly, perhaps we should be more generous in reviewing that choice by the president.  However, if the reports are true that Mr. Trump did not know the name La David Johnson, then he still failed utterly in the job of Comforter-in-Chief.

Going back to what Rear Admiral (ret) Kirby wrote.  After positing that Mr. Trump owes an apology to Mrs. Johnson, he wrote:

"Such an apology is likely not forthcoming.  So the next best thing he -- and quite frankly everyone else, including Rep. Wilson -- should do, is stop.  Stop making it worse.  Stop throwing barbs and rejoinders.  Stop turning this into a political fight and focus instead on doing what must be done to honor the sacrifices these four men made."

Sorry Admiral Kirby, but with all due respect, it was the current Commander-in-Chief who began the process of politicizing this, along with every single other thing he talks about.  He made false, malicious allegations for the umpteenth time regarding President Obama.  He failed to take action in the proper time to honor these four soldiers.  When confronted with that fact, he tried to avoid being faulted by blaming others; as he does every time his flaws are pointed out to him.

Yes, Rep. Wilson is being a political opportunist and perhaps in the past this would be odious and inappropriate.  But as I continue to hear political pundits point out, by changing the game himself, Donald Trump has removed any sense of political norms from the process.  He started this fight.  For all of his self-professed "counter-puncher" claims, he often fires first and then when hit back, he claims the right to retaliate.  A right he does not give to those he attacks first.

Now is the moment for some of what George W. Bush said in a speech today:

"For example, our democracy needs a media that is transparent, accurate and fair. Our democracy needs religious institutions that demonstrate integrity and champion civil discourse. Our democracy needs institutions of higher learning that are examples of truth and free expression.
In short, it is time for American institutions to step up and provide cultural and moral leadership for this nation."

As Secretary Hillary Clinton correctly pointed out, Donald Trump has actually filed for business bankruptcy six separate times.  However, at this moment it his seventh bankruptcy that we should be most concerned about.  I make reference to the fact that the Trump Administration is utterly devoid of a moral compass and therefore, bankrupt in the ability to provide us with the moral leadership that President Bush was making reference to.

As he would say, "Sad!"

I say, tragic.