In the clash of American cultures, John Kelly picks his side
When John Kelly replaced the ineffectual Reince Priebus as President Trump’s chief of staff on July 31, there was widespread relief that the highly regarded, competent and patriotic retired Marine general would take charge in the White House. Since then, he has operated mostly in the background, but when he took the podium last week, amid an unseemly public spat over what Trump said to the widow of an Army sergeant killed in Niger, many expected him to exert a calming and dignified influence over what was turning into a national embarrassment.
Instead, Kelly made things worse. He picked a fight with a Democratic congresswoman who had criticized Trump, demeaned her with an insulting and provably false anecdote, and then stunned the assembled press corps by saying he would only take questions from reporters who had some connection to a Gold Star family, seeming to stop himself just short of demanding the name, rank and serial number of the deceased service member.
If observers were shocked by this, it is because many had placed their hopes in the trio Trump calls “my generals,” the others being Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, to rein in the president’s authoritarian and unconstitutional impulses.
The military is one of the few American institutions that still command almost universal respect. Officers who have come up through the ranks, often risking their lives in combat, are viewed, and sometimes view themselves, as guardians of American constitutional democracy, standing above politics and self-interest, on the example of the officer whose picture is on the dollar bill.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/clash-american-cultures-john-kelly-picks-side-161107132.html
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I have no sympathy for him. 
