Last night on The Booth we discussed the issue of Presidential phone calls to the families of fallen servicemembers.\u00a0 President Trump recklessly and incorrectly suggested more than once yesterday that prior presidents did not call the families of servicemembers who had died in service to the nation.\u00a0 When challenged, he doubled-down on the falsehood as he is prone to do, thus politicizing this previously sanctified presidential action. \u00a0For generations, presidents of all parties performed this solemn duty with the privacy and dignity so clearly called for by such a moment.\u00a0 I cannot think of a single incident wherein any president, member of Congress, or even the media violated the sanctity of this occasion.\u00a0 To be abundantly clear, we do not politicize the deaths of servicemembers, period.\u00a0 To my knowledge, only the Westboro Baptist Church commits such an atrocious violation, routinely protesting the funeral of servicemembers who died in service to the nation.\u00a0 They are clearly a disgusting fringe organization we will not dignify with further discussion.\u00a0 The President\u2019s decision to discuss let alone cast aspersion to his predecessors in their performance of this sacred duty was a gross departure from custom and decorum, beneath the dignity of the office, and another example of his lack of character.\u00a0 The issue should have ended yesterday.\u00a0 That said, I am extremely uncomfortable continuing the discussion, especially as a veteran who respects this presidential duty.\u00a0 However, today\u2019s events deserve brief additional comment.<\/p>\n
Sergeant (SGT) Johnson\u2019s body returned home to Miami yesterday.\u00a0 It was touching to see sincere respect from everyone at Miami International Airport from the airline workers on the tarmac to law enforcement to the military escorts.\u00a0 Mrs. Johnson, the grieving widow, was joined in the limo by her children, her aunt and uncle, Congresswoman Wilson, and Dade County Commissioner Jordan.\u00a0 It seems President Trump called Mrs. Johnson while all were in the limo and she took the call on speaker for all to hear.\u00a0 Because of President Trump\u2019s inappropriate comments yesterday disparaging his predecessors and claiming these calls were extremely hard for him, there was unfortunate curiosity about his call to Mrs. Johnson.\u00a0 Constituents asked Congresswoman Wilson what President Trump said during the call.\u00a0 She responded that President Trump made the flippant comment that SGT Johnson knew what he signed up for, that he forgot SGT Johnson\u2019s name, and that the call made Mrs. Johnson extremely upset.\u00a0 President Trump quickly denied making any such comments and true to form attacked Congresswoman Wilson.\u00a0 He even claimed he had proof that he did not make those comments.\u00a0 He has made similar claims concerning prior similar incidents, never to provide his so-called proof.\u00a0 Additionally, County Commissioner Jordan, in a separate conversation, offered the same assessment of the President\u2019s call.\u00a0 The Congresswoman and Commissioner need to be careful not to themselves delve into politicizing the Presidential condolence calls.\u00a0 Although the President opened the door to this, it would still be wrong for others to continue this departure from standards.\u00a0 Lastly, after the President denied making the comments, Mrs. Johnson\u2019s aunt spoke out that she also heard the President make those comments.<\/p>\n
After hearing separately from three individuals who heard the call first hand while in the limo with Mrs. Johnson, it is hard to find any credibility in the President\u2019s denial or his claim of having \u201cproof\u201d of what he believes he said.\u00a0 There are certainly prior examples of the President\u2019s lack of character, lack of understanding issues, even competence to do the job.\u00a0 This is different.\u00a0 Presidential calls to the families of fallen servicemembers were always sacred and private.\u00a0 Every president conducted this solemn business in their own way, but never with any challenge, scrutiny, or public eye.\u00a0 It was never partisan, political, or even discussed.\u00a0 It was just done and done the best way possible under the most difficult circumstances and with families in pain.\u00a0 I think we can put this horrific few days behind us and as a nation go back to the respectful way this was done.\u00a0 If there are more calls to make, President Trump must be allowed to make them in private without a media circus determined to ascertain how he did.\u00a0 The President\u2019s statements on this matter have been shameful.\u00a0 The President owes the country better and cannot again open this door.\u00a0 Everyone needs to stand down\u2026\u00a0 If we cannot perform this incredibly important and meaningful obligation correctly, we can do nothing correctly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last night on The Booth we discussed the issue of Presidential phone calls to the families of fallen servicemembers.\u00a0 President Trump recklessly and incorrectly suggested more than once yesterday that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}