This morning it’s being reported that Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly ‘unloaded’ on Trump with respect to Vindman’s removal from the NSC, saying Trump was wrong to do it:
POLITICO – Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said Wednesday that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was following his military training when he chose to report President Donald Trump’s now infamous July phone call with the president of Ukraine.
“He did exactly what we teach them to do from cradle to grave,” Kelly said at an event at Drew University in New Jersey, according to The Atlantic. “He went and told his boss what he just heard.”
“We teach them, Don’t follow an illegal order. And if you’re ever given one, you’ll raise it to whoever gives it to you that this is an illegal order, and then tell your boss,” Kelly said Wednesday of Vindman’s flagging of the call, during which Trump pressured Zelensky to open foreign probes into his domestic political rivals.
Kelly also appeared to affirm that he believed Trump did indeed condition hundreds of millions of dollars in vital military aid to Ukraine on Zelensky’s agreement to assist in the investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
“Through the Obama administration up until that phone call, the policy of the U.S. was militarily to support Ukraine in their defensive fight against …. the Russians,” Kelly said. “And so, when the president said that continued support would be based on X, that essentially changed. And that’s what that guy [Vindman] was most interested in.”
Trump responded with a few tweets on John Kelly:
When I terminated John Kelly, which I couldn’t do fast enough, he knew full well that he was way over his head. Being Chief of Staff just wasn’t for him. He came in with a bang, went out with a whimper, but like so many X’s, he misses the action & just can’t keep his mouth shut,.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2020
….which he actually has a military and legal obligation to do. His incredible wife, Karen, who I have a lot of respect for, once pulled me aside & said strongly that “John respects you greatly. When we are no longer here, he will only speak well of you.” Wrong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2020
Mark Levin also weighed in on Kelly’s remarks:
1. Kelly has a real hate on for the president. And he basically regurgitates the media and Democrat attack lines against the president, which is why Mediaite amplified his comments.
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) February 13, 2020
2. If he despised the president so much why did he accept the chief of staff job after having served as DHS secretary?https://t.co/8ThhjDZBTS
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) February 13, 2020