Twitter user attacks John McCain, gets schooled

I don't know how much longer Johnny Mac is going to be with us, but you can bet one thing and take this to the bank. When McCain goes off to his great reward, 45 will say all the right things about him, but as soon as the mics and cameras are turned off, he'll be practically doing somersaults and the Electric Slide in the Oval Office in pants-wetting delight.

The heartless, soulless, gutless prick.

Twick said:

Race may be a factor, but I don't think he'd have done a *significantly* better job with a white soldier.

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I keep thinking about this. Are the other three soldiers' families just staying mum, or did he actually do a better job with them. We'll never know unless they speak about it, but I do wonder.

Brightdreamer said:

I also remember when he lost control of his own audience, asking them to treat Obama with basic human respect that they refused to give. That was when he lost the party... sadly prophetic of the current state of the right.

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They booed him. They actually booed. Prophetic, indeed.

All during the 2016 campaign Trump showed us what he is. No one should be surprised at his behavior now.
When someone shows you who he is, believe him the first time.

Twick said:

From what I understand, he hasn't even contact them yet. This was his first attempt, and I suspect it'll dissuade him from any further ones.

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Walking the dogs and listening to NPR replay John Kelly's remarks, he said Trump called all 4 yesterday. Kelly was the one who said the "he knew what he was getting when he signed up" line, after Trump asked Kelly what he should say, but of course, listening to Kelly say it, there was much more to it, and it had helpful sentiments both before and after the line. If Trump took the shortcut (which, come on, we know he does) and left out the blahblahblah (in his mind) empathetic parts, I can see how he would get himself into trouble.

Kelly also was dismayed at the "politicization" of his own son's 2010 death in Afghanistan. Guess who brought that incident into public discourse, by trying to disparage the preceding President of the United States for having (allegedly) not called General Kelly about it. Kelly has so far refused to address that allegation.

caw

Right, because the president politicizing it >a black congresswoman politicizing it. Imagine that.

I didn't vote for McCain for the same reason I wouldn't vote for any member of the GOP--he'd gone way too far in embracing the socially and economically conservative party line. Until they change their platform to something more reasonable (by my standards) in terms of social equality, economics, environmentalism, and the role of science in informing policy, I don't trust them. I liked Obama better politically as well as personally.

McCain is more palatable than many Republicans and has been more willing to reach across the aisle in the past (as with McCain-Feingold), but once he decided to seek out the approval of his party as a presidential candidate, whatever his personal beliefs may have been about everything from abortion to the environment went out the window. As for his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, he chose someone who exemplified the worst form of simple-minded conservative populism at that time. I don't know if that's what he wanted, or if he really thought he was reaching out to moderate and conservative women with a running mate who was (at that time) unknown and not controversial, but he didn't vet his choice well enough. She was a complete joke.

Maybe he feels like he's able to be his most authentic self again, now that he's in the home stretch of his political career and very likely not long for this world. I know it can't be easy being a moderate conservative these days, but I don't feel that sorry for the few who remain. They bedded down with the devil of extremism, and the more you give in to the far right, the more the far right demands. Overall, I haven't seen a lot of spine on the right when it comes to uniting against a man many of them allegedly are worried about in private.

Hindsight being 20-20, though, it was only a matter of time until one of the GOP's populist "jokes" ended up in the highest office in the land.

ElaineA said:

Right, because the president politicizing it >a black congresswoman politicizing it. Imagine that.

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What makes it all worse, if that's possible, is that Rep. Wilson is and has been close to the family and knew Sgt. Johnson. *45 doesn't appear to know his name. And he sure doesn't seem to know the name of his widow, Myeshia, whom he called "the wife" and "the woman."

And Kelly is stunned, just stunned, that Rep. Wilson "listened in" to a conversation that took place in a car she was riding in that was on speakerphone.

Lyv said:

And Kelly is stunned, just stunned, that Rep. Wilson "listened in" to a conversation that took place in a car she was riding in that was on speakerphone.

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A conversation that was listened to by multiple government officials on the President's end, including Kelly.

ElaineA said:

Right, because the president politicizing it >a black congresswoman politicizing it. Imagine that.

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The Congresswoman didn't address the death of John Kelly's son, that I'm aware of. That was brought up by Donald Trump, in a reaction to her statement about what Trump said about Sgt. Johnson's death.

caw

No. She is being accused of politicizing the death of her constituent's son, when Trump did the same using Kelly's son. Kelly was shocked and saddened by the congresswoman's exposure of the conversation, but somehow not shocked and saddened (publicly) that Trump threw Kelly's family into the fray.

The double standard to normalize and excuse Trump is alive and well in General Kelly.

I adore Joy-Ann Reid, and appreciated her opinion piece.

Wilson first gave her account to local reporters in Miami who met the limousine carrying her, Myeshia Johnson and Staff Sgt. Johnson’s adoptive parents to the funeral home to claim the body of the fallen soldier. Apparently, the White House had alerted the media that he would call Johnson’s widow, evidently hoping to reap some rare good press for the most hated president in modern U.S. history.

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So the press was apparently there because the White House told them about the call. A grieving family was in the spotlight, if I am reading this right, because *45 put them there for his own gain. It just didn't work, imo, because he isn't good at faking basic humanity.

According to Wilson, who was sitting in the limo with the family, and an Army representative who held the phone and put it on speaker so that the distraught Mrs. Johnson could talk with the president, Trump never used Staff Sgt. Johnson’s name, referring to him only as “my guy.” During a call that lasted some five minutes, the commander in chief reportedly told Mrs. Johnson that her husband “knew what he signed up for,” adding: “but I guess when it happens, it hurts anyway.”

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"My guy."

ElaineA said:

The double standard to normalize and excuse Trump is alive and well in General Kelly.

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A good soldier. He took the bullet for his boss. Except he's a politician now.

-cb

It also wasn't the family, as far as I saw, who broke the story.