Someone who “has a good brain” and “all the best words” wouldn’t make such a horribly blunt statement like that.
Mary Catherine Hamm, a while ago on CNN, offered a far better example of how it could have been phrased. (Paraphrased because I didn’t catch the exact wording) “It’s inspiring that we produce remarkable young men who, in the face of giving their lives in defense of their country and comrades, continue to move forward.”
We all know Trump is a horrible communicator and he demonstrated that here.
But it’s his own fault that this was such a big deal. If he had just quietly made these calls to the families like past presidents have done, it wouldn’t have been newsworthy. He still would have screwed up the calls but people would have said “Okay, that’s just Trump. He’s a poor speaker. What are you gonna do? But he tried, bless his heart.”
Instead, Trump set out to make these calls an event. He announced he was going to make these calls. He said he was going to do a better job at making these calls than any past president has ever done. He said “Everyone watch me while I make these calls and admire me for what a great job I will do at it.”
The latter. I do sympathize - the job he really took on was the one of defending the country, a job he’s devoted his life to, but this time it amounted to keeping Trump isolated with his finger off the button. I’m sure he knew it would be personally debasing at times. I’m in favor of letting him off the hook for it, knowing the situation can only get much worse if he’s out.
Thanks for your continuing service, General. Even if we all feel dirty for it.
Mr. Trump fancies himself plainspoken, direct, no nonsense. No gloss, no gauzy sentiments. Somebody wrote a “formal” speech for him, and he didn’t use it, preferring his own. The speech probably had something like brave young people stepping up to face danger. As information, that is very much like “knowing what he was getting into.”
But the purpose was not to impart information, the bereaved already know he is dead, already know that he volunteered, they are not informed. The purpose is a gesture of comfort and shared sorrow, the formal tone of the remarks should reflect that dignity, not turn it into a “matter of fact” of the bleeding obvious. Brevity is for humor, not for comfort. The formal and sombre words are expected, they matter, they signify, that are not merely an embellishment.
He seems to believe that he has an unerring instinct, despite the failures that plop! splat! on the ground like the droppings of flying pigs.
I was looking for the story, but could not find it, abut the gold star wife that hit bush when he talked to her, and then he hugged her while she cried.
Now, not big fan of bush, but he handled that well.
Can you imagine if a gold star family member hit trump? He’d hit back 10 times as hard.
And of course the political hack that was present during the call didn’t steer the grieving family’s interpretation at all… Right?
“It’s amazing,” the Florida Democrat said with a laugh when asked by 7News in Miami for her reaction to John Kelly’s impassioned rebuke yesterday afternoon over her attack on Trump over the call. “I’ll have to tell my kids that I’m a rockstar now.”
Ah. Her purpose is achieved. “Rockstar”, laughing, at the expense of the grieving family. But then what would you expect from a Democrat?
I didn’t think that John Kelly had anything to do with it.
That’s as stupid now as it was the first 80 times you trumpeted it out. You do realize that she is reacting to the absurdity of trump and his lies, right?
He was the one using grieving families for political purposes, even before he called them, with his news conference bragging about how much he liked to make the call. He was the one politicised it when he lied to brag that other presidents didn’t call. He’s the one who threw Kelly and what his experience of losing a child was like into the political arena. He’s the one who got Kelly to turn around and lie about Wilson’s speech at the FBI building dedication.
And you eat it all up straight out of their ass like it’s soft serve ice cream.
At least wipe off your fucking face after you’ve had your fill.
Last night, Richard Spencer made a speech at the University of Florida. Three supporters leaving the speech got into an altercation with protesters, culminating in one of the supporters shooting at the protesters. No one was harmed. The three Spencer supporters were arrested.
I’m putting this here because I can’t be bothered to start an Omnibus White Supremacist Rants thread, and because there’s essentially no daylight between white supremacists and the Trump administration. Can someone get Trump to comment on the incident? I want him to tell us that the white supremacists are “very fine people” again.
The real crime is that Spencer’s free speech rights weren’t respected by the hooligans who were shouting him down. Also, it’s a complete travesty that NFL owner’s aren’t forcing their players to properly respect the flag during the pre-game anthem. Disgraceful!