No he didn’t. — NOS4A2

Well, uh... he in fact did...

Kelly set the record straight with on-the-record confirmation of a number of damning stories about statements Trump made behind closed doors attacking US service members and veterans, listing a number of objectionable comments Kelly witnessed Trump make firsthand.

“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.

“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”

And again, just out of curiosity, in what context is calling Americans who died in war "Losers" and "Suckers" okey dokey?

But the words he said about John McCain are applicable to other veterans who got captured. He aimed his comments at "people who were captured", which includes a lot more people than John McCain. Do you see that?

When those veterans are G. Bush and J. McCain.

But behind closed doors, sources told Goldberg, this lack of understanding went on to cause Trump to repeatedly call McCain a “loser” and to refer to former President George H. W. Bush, who was also shot down as a Navy pilot in World War II, as a “loser.”

This written by Bush and mcCain’s chief propagandist.

By the way, they didn’t die in war.

Did Trump ever visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reid?

How does one make the leap from John McCain to all veterans? He’s taking the piss out of one man in particular.

You seem to be confusing the reports.

You seem to be concerned about a few out-of-context words as reported by a disgruntled employee while dismissing everything else Trump has said about the military and veterans over his lifetime.

Trump hired him, and he was Trump's longest-serving chief of staff, so I assume that John Kelly is a slime-ball too. It's characteristic of a slime-ball to turn on their master when it's safe to do so.

"

I like people who weren’t captured.

That's not a statement about only John McCain. It's not a leap. It's his words.

If I was being critical of some guy who happens to be white, and I said "I prefer people who aren't white," it would be pretty obvious that I'm not talking about JUST the guy who happens to be white. I'm disparaging all white people to insult one white person.

In so doing he exposes his moral panic. The way he strings disparate words together in order to form this weird little narrative, which is apparently newsworthy, is indicative of his psychology or susceptibility to propaganda, one or the other.

One only has to look at the X accounts of the war-machine’s neo-con propagandists, like Frum and Goldberg and Kristol, to see how gleeful they are of Kelly’s tirade, which concerns petty nonsense we all were foaming about years ago.

It’s just a jab at McCain which you construed as a jab at those who were captured. Why should anyone care?

Because it's incredibly inappropriate, just in terms of basic decency and values, for an American president to talk that way about American POWs

"I like people who weren’t captured."

That's not a statement about only John McCain. It's not a leap. It's his words. — flannel jesus

Textbook example of doublethink on part of the Trumpistas.
But doublethink isn't hypocrisy, though.

I like presidents who didn't pretend to have bone spurs to get out military service. Or maybe he didn't pretend! Maybe, just maybe, the bone spurs magically disappeared after 1968... Like Covid was supposed to disappear -- just go away -- it will be like a miracle! -- in the summer of 2020! Trump sure doesn't seem to have a history of limping or any obvious physical disability that interferes with his mobility. We never hear "Sorry, I can't golf because of these damn bone spurs!" That might have been an excuse for why he couldn't walk to the Capitol with the January 6th protestors, though!

It’s just a jab at McCain which you construed as a jab at those who were captured. Why should anyone care? — NOS4A2

There is no society, right, there are only individuals doing their jobs, trying to survive.

Trump’s words and cadence and grammar (and spelling) lends itself to ridicule, and rightfully so. But giving speeches is the easy part. In fact I’m glad Trump is bad at it. The whole politics of “optics” and speech-giving can do nothing but bait the public. There is a reason soldiers are captured, and that is because the politics of optics and speech-giving allowed politicians and bureaucrats to send them into other countries with a clean conscience.

McCain and Bush sent people to their death, and they lost. They are losers, and that is not a swipe at losers in general.

It’s a big blob moving as one, isn’t it?

Trump's criticisms of a Gold-Star Muslim family on national television is news to me and it is utterly disgusting.

Obama being presidential at that time:

He certainly had the qualities of a president, one who polishes the image of American interventionism and the military industrial complex. “Thanks for giving us your children”, is all I hear. Does the deaths of Muslim families disgust you any?

Looking back at President Obama’s legacy, the Council on Foreign Relation’s Micah Zenko added up the defense department’s data on airstrikes and made a startling revelation: in 2016 alone, the Obama administration dropped at least 26,171 bombs. This means that every day last year, the US military blasted combatants or civilians overseas with 72 bombs; that’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.

While most of these air attacks were in Syria and Iraq, US bombs also rained down on people in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. That’s seven majority-Muslim countries.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy

I hope you don't think trump dropped fewer bombs

https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/09/donald-trump-is-dropping-bombs-at-unprecedented-levels/

Trumps bombs were righteous and friendly bombs.

People are saying they were the best bombs ever. They came to me with tears in their eyes, real tears, people who have never cried before, they said Mr President, the bombs were so beautiful, just so big and beautiful like you wouldn't believe.

Lol!

it would be better if it was the last supper with trump edited in as Judas

Trump sitting at the right hand of Jesus? This isn't funny. The moral implications of Trump being considered righteous are immense.

This isn't funny. — baker

Then don’t laugh.

I find it hilarious.

What is it like when a Trump supporter has this thought: "What if Trump brought all of this on himself?" The question must present itself, at least occasionally, bubbling up from the subconscious mind. Yet, it must be disturbing, because it is tantamount to asking oneself: "What if I've been wrong in my ardent support of Trump for all of this time?" Also, when you're part of a movement -- if you have friends and family that know you are a staunch Trump supporter -- there is peer pressure not to back down. So, the conscious choice seems to be to either keep supporting Trump to avoid the shame of having to admit one is wrong, or renounce Trump and move on. Imagine going to church and the other congregants all know you as a loyal Trump supporter. It's part of your identify, and you've even intertwined your religious and political beliefs. Perhaps it is at this point when one feels motivated to sketch a white Jesus sitting next to Trump in a courtroom.

What if I've been wrong? — GRWelsh

I hope everyone here is capable of asking themselves that question seriously from time to time whether they support Donald trump or not, about any of their beliefs, political or otherwise.

RICO Defendant-1 for Speaker of the US House of Representatives?

The fact that ir's even slightly more than a mere possibility ... sh*ts the bed.

:yikes:

Welcome to Absurdistan, folks!

Don't worry, Republicans Already Barred Trump From Being Speaker of the House:

Rule 26 of the GOP Conference states, "A member of the Republican Leadership shall step aside if indicted for a felony for which a sentence of two or more years imprisonment may be imposed."

I hope everyone here is capable of asking themselves that question seriously from time to time whether they support Donald trump or not, about any of their beliefs, political or otherwise. — flannel jesus

Here, here! I try to do that. I often try to think of what the world would have to be like if my Trump supporting friends are right and I am wrong. For example, if the 2020 election was truly stolen then that means Biden is a mastermind. It also means the Democrats and the "deep state" are far more ingenious and have a stronger hold on power than I ever imagined. For the Trump supporter, this isn't a good thing. Either Trump lost to Biden fairly -- which is is humiliating -- or Trump had his victory stolen from him -- which is also humiliating, since evidently he saw it coming and was unable to stop Biden, the deep state, and the other conspirators. If it was so skillfully stolen from him in 2020, what hope is there for Trump to win in 2024?