Ex-Presidents Send Trump a Pointed Message
Ex-presidents send Trump a pointed message
Politics has never been an innocent profession. Every generation has witnessed contentious arguments, division, scandals and below-the-belt attacks – McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, Watergate, Iran-Contra, impeachment, the Iraq war and the all-out fight over Obamacare.
But what was extraordinary about Thursday was having two ex-presidents – George W. Bush and Barack Obama – deliver what amounted to a bipartisan, two-pronged denunciation of the Trump Era. Neither Bush nor Obama mentioned by Trump by name, but they also didn’t have to.
“I haven’t been commenting a lot on politics lately, but here’s one thing I know: If you have to win a campaign by dividing people, you’re not going to be able to govern it,” Obama said while campaigning for Democrat Ralph Northam in Virginia, per NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard.
“We’re at our best when we’re not trying to put people down but when we’re trying to lift everybody up,” Obama added.
Meanwhile, hours earlier in a speech in New York, Bush said, “Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.”
“We have seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty,” Bush continued. “At times, it can seem like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together.”
And Bush said this: “[W]e need to recall and recover our own identity. Americans have a great advantage: To renew our country, we only need to remember our values.”
Dividing people. Putting people down. Emboldened bigotry. Conspiracy theories. Casual cruelty. We need to remember out values.
These were stunning speeches from two ex-presidents, especially since both men were accused of being dividers during their own presidencies. And George W. Bush’s remarks were particularly striking, given that he didn’t really comment on politics during the eight years of the Obama Era. But it took Bush only nine months into the Trump Era to deliver the speech he did.
Members of the media and some political professionals have remarked how this Trump Era is DIFFERENT from past political eras. And on Thursday, you had two ex-presidents saying pretty much the same thing.
As our colleague Beth Fouhy reminds us Bush, Obama and the other three living U.S. presidents (Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter ) will participate in a hurricane-relief concert on Saturday in Texas.
John Kelly’s powerful remarks raised three questions
There was another extraordinary moment on Thursday – White House Chief of Staff John Kelly’s appearance at press podium. NBC’s Ali Vitali : “In heartfelt remarks about his own loss, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a former general whose Marine son was killed in Afghanistan, said Thursday he was ‘stunned’ by a Florida lawmaker's criticism of President Donald Trump's condolence call to a fallen soldier's wife. Kelly described himself as ‘broken-hearted’ coming to work at the White House on Wednesday as he saw Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat, on news networks disclosing the private details of Trump's call to Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who was among four soldiers killed this month in Niger.”
While Kelly’s words were powerful, they also raised questions he didn’t answer yesterday:
- With Trump denying he told the Johnson family that La David T. Johnson “must've known what he signed up for,” didn’t Kelly essentially confirm that was the message Trump delivered to the family? ("In [Trump's] way tried to express that opinion -- that he's a brave man, a fallen hero, he knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted,” Kelly told reporters.)
- Why did Kelly get his facts wrong during his attack on Rep. Wilson? At a 2015 dedication at a Miami FBI office, Kelly said, Wilson “stood up, and in the long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there and all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money, and she just called up President Obama, and on that phone call he gave the money -- the $20 million -- to build the building.” (The Miami Herald says the legislation Wilson sponsored NAMED the FBI building after those slain agents; the money for it was approved BEFORE she came to Congress.)
- Why didn’t the Trump White House take the higher ground? Trump and his White House turned this all into a story by A) having Trump say that Obama and past presidents didn’t call Gold Star families; B) having Trump say in a radio interview to ask Kelly if Obama called him after his son died in Afghanistan; and C) having Kelly attack Wilson from the White House podium.
Senate passes budget, paving the way for tax reform
NBC’s Frank Thorp : “The Senate on Thursday passed a Republican budget resolution that would pave the way to use a special procedural rule to consider tax reform later this year. The $4 trillion budget blueprint passed 51-49, with all Democrats and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voting against it.”
“It sets the stage for debate later this year to dramatically overhaul the U.S. tax code, cutting rates for individuals and corporations while clearing away trillions of dollars' worth of deductions and special-interest tax breaks.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/ex-presidents-send-trump-pointed-message-n812526
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I agree for the most part .. yet why is it still being made to sound like this mess was created in Election 2016?
Why is identity politics never mentioned as something that has assisted in degraded discourse?
Conspiracy ran amok during the Bush era .. division ran amok under Obama's tenure ... bigotry has never NOT been emboldened, just now States call a state of emergency .. WTF is that? while the press runs amok with half truth and opinion based articles sold as fact.
Values, are a rather subjective topic .. 'our' values may overlap, yet I am sure they are not the same, so how does revisiting/remembering them renew this Nation .. has not the changing of values been a catalyst in the divide?
Good morning - it is Friday .... yipppeeeeee!
Peace...
Ps... Just my thought!
P.s.s.... there is a budget ... time to move to the next big thing, and work in a bi-partisan manner!!!
I'm enjoying how the left is hanging on the words of Bush 43. Especially as he was roundly hated, unendingly mocked as an idiot during his presidency. Now the left wants to cuddle up to him because he's saying words they like.
Nothing like Integrity.
Morning Spike, the media and the left are quoting Steve Bannon, even Scaramucci if it advanced a negative narrative towards the current President - former President Bush being embraced is mild by comparison!
Yep, at least 43 has some. Trump, not so much.
Yes, and Trump certainly has nothing when it comes to integrity.
Conversely, the right locked their lips on Bush's butt throughout revelations of torture, warrantless wiretaps, WMD lies and now they turn their backs on him because he's saying words they don't like.
Let's face it, some people on a site like Newstalkers comment and blowhard without understanding what they are talking about. We like to call them "Trump supporters".
As this article points out, Kelly essentially ADMITTED that Trump did tell Johnson's family that "he knew what he had signed up for'. In fact, Kelly also strongly implied that HE was the one who gave Trump the idea to say that.
Yet, on forums like this we will see comment after comment after comment saying the congresswoman was lying, when the truth is that it was Trump that was lying when he said he didnt make that phrase to the widow.
Wake the f up people.
and take the full context of the statement into consideration, rather than cherry picking?
Huh? Please explain how I left out a context.
Never stated that you did.. I simply added to your "Wake the F up People" Sorry to disappoint, but my comment had nothing to do with you...
I just feel that sound bites and snip its are ruining this country - hearing the complete statement made is important...
Oh, ok.
Kelly pretty clearly indicated, whether he intended to or not, that the congresswoman was essentially correct in how she described what Trump said.
We dont see that acknowledged too much on this site and others today.
The snip it is truthful ... perhaps not what some individuals desire to hear, yet the soldier did know.
My neighbor boy leaves for Marine boot camp on the 23 (like this Monday) ... I have talked with him in great detail .. known him since he was 7 ... he is my lil buddy (long story) .......................... I have had conversation after conversation with him - he knows what he is signing up for, not really anyway to sugar coat it!
The congresswoman WAS lying in the fact that she injected HER politically biased inflection on the words she think she heard. As Mr. Kelly was the one who inspired the words, don't you think that the true meaning of Mr. Trump's "message" really WAS intended to convey that of calling the man out for his bravery?
I have posted since this story came out numerous times about how I would have taken this comment. That of "He knew the dangers and possibilities coming in when he joined up but yet still chose to serve his country". I would bet "dimes to donuts" (frigging Layton/MsNyx cracks me up) had this been any other POTUS, especially Dem and "not Trump" the Congresswoman would have said nothing, the family (strangely the wife is yet to weigh in) and all the panty twisted liberals would never have known and it would have gone COMPLETELY unnoticed.
She described perhaps the words but NOT the intent NOR the spirit. As I posted on another thread just today, weren't we told last summer/fall that "you cannot prove intent" in the case of one former SoS and a private mail server?
Both ways eh?
Trump has claimed that he "never said" what the congresswoman claimed he said to the widow. He accused the congresswoman of making it up. According to what Kelly said, it now appears that she did NOT make it up, so Trump was lying when he said she made it up.
He's a liar, every day, because that is who he is. One day it might dawn on you to your horror.