The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff Reports

Posted: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 10:45 AM

OUR VIEW: Florida Congress Woman Frederica Wilson No Rock Star, She's A Disgrace

Wilson went on various liberal networks stating  President Donald Trump’s condolence call to the family of Sgt. La David Johnson was “insulting,” and that the White House “is full of white supremacists.” Wilson has previously publicly stated her hatred of Trump, and it's HER remarks, not the actions of the President, which are demagoguery, insulting and racist.

That is not the definition of a rock star. That is the definition of a racist and low-life politician with a political axe to grind. 

By all accounts, Trump's call to Sgt. Johnson's family was centered on Sgt. Johnson knowing what he was doing could cost him his life, yet did it anyway. That is the mark of a true brave hero, something President Trump was trying to highlight in his call to the Johnson family.

Every military person I've heard and talked to has said that Sgt. Johnson would have understood, and appreciated the acknowledgment and condolence from the President, who was not in any way demeaning the young man's choices or his efforts as a soldier. The very fact President Trump called in the first place was worthy of praise, not scorn. These calls are not for public consumption, but Wilson made sure this week the world knew the contents. That action alone was hideous.

Chief of Staff John Kelly (who had coached Trump on what to say, and is himself a Gold Star father) vented his anger at Wilson for politicizing the sacred subject of these calls, likening the congresswoman to an “empty barrel.”

While searching for the term, we were led to the saying, “An empty barrel makes the most noise,” which quora.com says is invoked “to minimize insult and downgrade a very loud critic” — and which Kelly used before, when a congressman called him “a disgrace to the uniform.”

But as a natural reflex, Wilson couldn't help herself playing the race card, just as all Democrats do in ANY situation! Andrew Sullivan recently wrote in a New York magazine that many on the left now even say that national borders are themselves racist. This is the type of lunacy that will continue to drive moderate voters into the arms of the Republican party - or ANY party other than the Democrats.

Why do these low-life politicians always bring the nation into their racist gutters whenever they can - even in the death of an American soldier? I don't know either.

In a comical footnote following this shameful display,Wilson remained defiant Friday proclaiming she felt like all the attention the White House was giving her had made her a "rock star."  Yea, right.

Wilson is anything but a rock star. Rock stars, at least most of them, know when to keep their mouths shut while they are ahead instead of opening their mouths and revealing they are complete brainless and soulless morons. She must have missed that memo.

Her attempts to exploit Trump’s condolence call to further her hatred of Trump was shameful enough. However, her attempts to smear Gen. John Kelly, who came to the defense of the President Friday in an impassioned news conference made this ten times worse. Throwing the race card into the flames disgraced every single fallen soldier in this nation.

The fact that the deaths of four soldiers, ambushed in Niger, would be reduced to political fodder for the bonfire reveals the depths of depravity of the American left. It truly knows no bounds.

There were several false charges about the entire incident we feel need to be addressed shortly.

The first false charge was that Trump “lied” when he said recent presidents did not always make condolence calls to the next of kin. He was correct, though he could die waiting for an apology. The key word in his statement was "not always." He didn't say "never," he said "not always."

The second false charge was that Trump had been “disrespectful” when he called the widow of one of the fallen soldiers. Made by a Democratic congresswoman from Florida who listened to the call, the charge had the earmarks of a hit job from impeachment wing nuts.

Because of the media’s eagerness to believe anything critical of Trump, Kelly had to step forward.

He commended the president for making condolence calls, which he insisted were not uniformly made, and said he even gave Trump a script and that the president “in the best way he could,” followed it.

But Kelly went further, describing in painful detail the meticulous process of getting a fallen American off the battlefield and home for burial. He described how a military family is told a loved one has died, and how it felt for him to be on the other end when his son was killed in Afghanistan.

Kelly also revealed how stunned and heartbroken he was when Trump’s condolence call became a source of dispute, saying: “The only thing I could do to collect my thoughts was to go and walk among the finest men and women on this earth. And you can always find them because they’re in Arlington ­National Cemetery.

“I went over there for an hour and a half, walked among the stones, some of whom I put there because they were doing what I told them to do when they were killed.”

Kelly's remarks were from the heart of a warrior about values and the military code of honor for those who died for their country. He used the word “sacred” several times, and there is no better word for the soldiers and their sacrifice. Gen. Kelly understands this. Frederica Wilson does not.

The media reaction was typical and again revealed how much of the media has become bloated with vanity and ignorance. So many lack any humility about things they don’t know, ­including the life-and-death decisions of others sworn to keep them safe.

As a result, Kelly soon became the target of the idiot class. Leading the race to the bottom was, naturally, a new-wave Democrat connected to Hillary Clinton. Brian Fallon, a CNN contributor and former Clinton flack, put out an appalling tweet that said in part: “Kelly isn’t just an ­enabler of Trump. He’s a believer in him. That makes him as odious as the rest.”

Others piled on, though it would be hard to top the view of a writer for The New Yorker. Under the headline, “John Kelly and the Language of the Military Coup,” Masha Gessen declared that his remarks “could serve as a preview of what a military coup in this country would look like.”
 

So we go from a condolence phone call to missing a military coup in five minutes Masha. That takes talent to be such a buffoon.

Gessen’s evidence includes Kelly’s lionizing of soldiers who died for America, and his decision to take questions only from journalists who had a personal connection to a fallen soldier or knew a Gold Star family.

Gessen called this “a loyalty test,” and was especially outraged that Kelly ended by saying, “We don’t look down upon those of you who haven’t served. In fact, in a way we are a little bit sorry because you’ll have never have experienced the wonderful joy you get in your heart when you do the kinds of things our servicemen and women do — not for any other reason than that they love this country.”

Michael Goodwin wrote in the New York Post this weekend that those who have never served in the military usually miss something essential about America in these cases.

He said those not in the military have "never committed ourselves to defending our country and all it stands for. We’ve never felt the deep bonds created by sharing that commitment with others, and have never been willing to die so that others might live in freedom." Those in America's volunteer military forces have, including Gen. John Kelly.

America has a volunteer army, with military leaders more than happy to have those fighting our enemies as those who have enlisted rather than those who have been compelled. Those in the media will never understand this great feature of our military and thus the disconnect between their stories and the respect that is deserved by all those who have served.

For those of us who have not served, it's vitally important to always show our gratitude for those extraordinary men and women like Sgt. Johnson, who, knowing the risks still choose to serve and sadly sometimes pay the ultimate price.

Gen. Kelly needs to be thanked for his valor on the battlefield and at home. His son was lost in Afghanistan in 2010 so he understands what it feels like to receive a call like the family of Sgt. Johnson received. Well actually, he don't because former President Obama never made a call to Kelly unlike President Trump who DID make a call to Sgt. Johnson's family.

That some refuse to hear what Gen. Kelly said, or worse, insult him, is their everlasting shame. Such is the description of Wilson, her media co-horts and all the rest of cowardly critics in this divided nation. God help us.

There are no winners here, but Wilson remains the winner of the 2017 low-life of the year award for exploiting this. Enjoy your award. You earned it.

Christopher McDonald, Publisher, Editor in Charge

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