In an effort to divert attention from today’s federal charges being filed against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his longtime business partner and former campaign adviser Rick Gates, and former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, Chief of Staff John Kelly spoke to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham to relitigate the Confederate statue controversy.
Chief of Staff John Kelly praises Robert E Lee as "honorable man," says "lack of an ability to compromise led to the civil war," not slavery pic.twitter.com/GSuVRrGKlQ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 31, 2017
Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederacy, was a glorified traitor to the United States, nearly tearing the country apart in an effort to maintain the institution of slavery. Furthermore, while Kelly claims that the “lack of an ability to compromise” led to the Civil War, he left out the fact that the difference on which both sides were unwilling to compromise was whether new states should be admitted into the Union as free states or slave states.
Kelly’s remarks tonight, then, are, at best, a testament to his ignorance of basic American history and, at worst, a tacit endorsement of slavery. Either way, the Chief of Staff of the United States of America should be ashamed of his abhorrent comments tonight.
Unfortunately, Kelly’s remarks are par for the course in the most flagrantly xenophobic, homophobic, racist, and misogynistic administration in modern American history. From Trump’s defense of “both sides” at the Charlottesville rally to this administration’s desperation to preserve the most shameful monuments of our nation’s past, this White House has not been shy about exactly who they are.
