Shameful Behavior

The following blog was written by a member of Orange Alert Sunnyvale:

Introduction:

Some of you may know me already, my name is Eric Tuttle, and I am a veteran of the Army infantry in the 101st Airborne Division. I joined ISB right around the planning of the Ro Khanna meeting which my wife, Michelle, and I volunteered to host. I have been very interested in politics, history, and government from a pretty young age.

At 18 I joined the Army for excitement, for a challenge, and to grow up. I was not ready for college at that time, however, I excelled in the Army and in my 3.5 years of service I earned 2 Army Achievement Medals and also an Army Commendation Medal. But I am not here to tell you about my military service.

Reason For Speaking Today:

The reason I’m speaking to you today is in response to the shameful behavior of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, but more importantly on the issue of whether activists like you all may feel hesitant to criticize active or retired military figures for fear of sounding unpatriotic or anti-military.

Many of you probably followed this story so as you know on Thursday, October 19th, John Kelly, a retired 4-star Marine General from the White House Press Briefing room, gave a scorching defense of Donald Trump for what was reported as a botched condolence call to Myeshia Johnson, wife of Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in
the Niger raid. Just as important was his blatantly dishonest character assassination of Rep. Frederica Wilson. Despite what Kelly did its important to realize this is another unforced error by Trump trying to insult President Obama. During a press conference Monday, October 15th, Trump was asked why he hadn’t called the families of the 4 Green Beret Special Forces soldiers killed in Niger. Trump’s vanity and pride again left him exposed by lying about President Obama and his responses to the death of service members. So three days later Kelly was send out for damage control for a story that kept getting worse for Trump. Essentially Kelly admitted Trump botched the call, but tried to give the reason for why Trump made the idiotic comment to the Gold Star widow that “he knew what he signed up for.” Prior to calling Myeshia Johnson, Donald Trump asked John Kelly what to say. Kelly basically said what his casualty officer had told him when his son, 2nd Lieutenant Robert Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan, which is that Robert died doing what he loved and he volunteered to serve so he knew what he signed up for. Donald Trump who has bragged about getting out of serving in Vietnam tells a new widow “he knew what he signed up for.” As a veteran I can tell you Donald Trump has not earned the right to speak to a veteran or a veteran’s family that way. The morning of the Kelly press conference I was listening to the Michaelangelo Signorile Show on SiriusXM satellite radio and he carried the press conference live. Before Kelly finished speaking I already called in to speak on the air. Michaelangelo put me on the air and I went off on Kelly and Trump.

I feel as a veteran I have an even greater responsibility to push back against Republicans but most especially this historically corrupt President. But the message I want to deliver to all of you is to not be afraid to criticize former or active military. Being former or active military does not ensure honor, integrity, or decency. For example John Kelly failed to disclose ties to a defense lobbying group, which listed him as a Vice Chairman, as well as being a board member to two other defense contractors with ties to the US
Government. This is a serious breach of ethics. Michael Flynn is accused of accepting, according to some reports, up to 15 million dollars to kidnap a Turkish Citizen and U.S. resident, Fethullah Gulen, to transport him to Turkey at the request of Turkish President Erdogan. His ties to Russia might even be more serious than the alleged kidnapping plot.

So 2 of the 4 prominent generals working in the Trump administration have had serious ethical issues, one accused of multiple felonies, and that’s not including John Kelly’s recent lamenting on the nobility of Robert E. Lee and the cause of the Civil War. Don’t forget about Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL officer and Secretary of the Interior, taking private charter flights on an Oil Company executive’s jet around the country and allegedly helping enable his friend and neighbor who owns Whitefish Energy, which is a 2 person company, to get a 300M contract to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electric grid. I could do a whole other presentation on Zinke’s ethical issues and we are not even 1 year into this
administration. I was happy to see the swift backlash against Kelly. There were numerous articles written about how his vicious attacks on a Frederika Wilson were all lies. The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell did a whole segment about it more than two weeks after the infamous press conference where Lawrence impugned Kelly’s integrity for remaining silent weeks after being shown to have categorically misrepresented Frederica Wilson’s words and actions. When asked later after he was shown to be wrong if he owed Rep. Wilson an apology, he said he has nothing to apologize for. This behavior fits a very consistent pattern with this administration that they seem to love to attack women, especially women of color. Representative Wilson has tremendous courage and strength and she is willing to fight to defend her constituents and also to fight against blatant lies from Kelly and Trump. In this situation with John Kelly and Rep. Wilson, I see one person with honor and courage and then there is John Kelly.

In addition to what we are seeing with open racists serving in government, in 2006 the FBI released a report detailing how Nazis and skinheads have infiltrated law enforcement across the country. This is deeply disturbing and runs parallel to my concerns about holding retired and active military members in our government
accountable. The last thing I want to say is that many people thank me for my service and while I really appreciate that, I am here to thank you all for YOUR service. The fact  that each and every one of you cares about our country and work hard to make it better everyday is the definition of patriotism. I am humbled by you and I am proud
to be one of you. So thank you.