A piece of the limelight
Kelly says Trump is telling whoppers about Mattis.
Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said Thursday that President Donald Trump “has clearly forgotten” the circumstances of former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s departure from the administration, breaking with his former boss to side with a fellow retired Marine Corps general.
Aka is telling whoppers.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Kelly contradicted Trump’s claim that he had fired Mattis. Kelly called Mattis “an honorable man” and described Trump’s Twitter attack on the former Defense secretary as “nasty.”
…
“The president did not fire him. He did not ask for his resignation,” Kelly, who was Trump’s chief of staff when Mattis departed the administration, told the Washington Post. “The president has clearly forgotten how it actually happened or is confused.”
Uh huh.
Sure, Don, sure.
“The president has clearly forgotten how it actually happened or is confused.”
Or is lying. WTF, why are people so reluctant to say what he is obviously doing?
Mostly because of libel laws.
@OB
#2
Do you know how hard is it for well-known people to sue for libel in the US?
Sort of, but I was trained to keep in mind that accusations of lying are a kind of third rail when it comes to libel.
But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s more to do with journalistic honor and what it’s possible to know. It’s very difficult to know when people are lying as opposed to wrong or sloppy or confused or self-deluding. I constantly yell that Trump is lying, but I know he’s probably so thick and so incapable of any kind of meta thinking that what he does isn’t strictly lying but just saying what he wants to say in that moment. But it’s his responsibility to make the necessary effort to tell the truth, and his complete refusal to take that responsibility amounts to one giant lie.
But responsible newspapers have a deep reluctance to say that. I think libel is part of that picture, but you’re right, I probably overstated it.
I have a brother much like Trump (but without money). He will lie even when it is in his best interests to tell the truth, and then will double down on his lie. Later that day, the next week, or whenever, he will say the opposite of his lie – often also untrue – with firm conviction, and deny that he ever said thing A. From my observations, what he says that is untrue he may know is untrue at the time, or he may just be ignorant that it is not true (I have observed both in him), but once it escapes his mouth, it is the truth, and he appears to believe with complete conviction that it is the truth. In short, he doesn’t believe he is a liar, so he can’t be lying. I have often suspected he has some sort of pathology, but getting him to a mental evaluation would be impossible, and his condition wouldn’t likely be spotted on a mental status exam because they seem more about cognition, and he could easily name presidents in reverse order, name five famous people, and do serial sevens. (I’m not convinced Trump could do all of those.)
Anyway, to the point, I have been hard pressed to decide if my brother is lying, delusional, or just believes what he says must be true or he wouldn’t have said it.
Yeah, why would Trump let his Chief of Staff know that he was going to fire Mattis? It’s not like it came within Kelly’s remit or anything, what with him only being the fucking Chief of Staff!