He’ll wait till the furor dies down, then do it anyway.
not resigned - fired - for doing what this administration does best - fucking things up -
Surely there are no ambitious idiots in the US military.
SECDEF’s statement passes neither sniff nor laugh tests.
Jake Tapper, CNN:
Jake Tapper, CNN:
It was a setup.
Spencer was probably told to communicate directly with the president, and when he did, got fired for usurping the chain of command.
I’m kind of having a hard time following this, is Esper the jerk or is it Spencer?
Jeremy Diamond, CNN:
Yes.
IMO, the most likely thing is that Trump wanted to intervene, Spencer threatened to resign, Trump was insulted and fired him, and the “went behind secdef’s back” story is cover. It doesn’t make sense that Spencer would need a secret deal to reinstate Gallagher’s rank when he’s the only one of the three opposed to it.
…and let’s consider who ultimately benefits the most from controversies between a Russian asset and the professional military?
What’d Pelosi say? “With Trump, all roads lead to Moscow.” Something like that.
Replace “Moscow” with “Putin” and you have it.
Jim Sciutto, CNN:
Guess not. He found some other scumbag toady to do his dirty work for him … AGAIN.
The SecDef has fired the SecNav.
Because ONCE AGAIN, Trump wanted it but DIDN’T HAVE THE FUCKING BALLS to do his own dirty work.
This whole thing will play well with the Republican electorate, honestly, which does include a great deal of veterans and service members. They will read this as: “Trump will move heaven and earth to salvage the name of a tip-of-the-spear warfighter who was thrown under the bus by military bureaucracy.” Put aside the facts of the case; those are the optics.
The idea that the Secretary of the Navy could be forced to step down, over one individual enlisted Sailor, because of the intervention of the President, will resonate with a lot of people.
So fucking what? If the last 30 or so Trump-ups wasn’t enough to make people arise and do something about Our National Disgrace what makes you think this incident will make a ghod damn bit of difference?
Kyle Griffin, MSNBC:
You do know if that fake SEAL (there is now no way for him to avoid that moniker) had killed a Christian, the republican base would be calling for him to hang. But he killed a Muslim. I’d bet real money some of that base jerk off when they read about that and how their “perfect” president is protect him now.
I don’t think Lamoral was saying that the Secretary’s dismissal would be viewed negatively by Trump’s opponents. Rather, he was saying that it would be viewed positively by Trump’s supporters.