Urban Radio's White House correspondent April Ryan explained during an interview with CNN that the decision by Gen. Mark Milley to apologize for President Donald Trump's photo-op may not end well for him.
"Any time someone goes against this president there's an ultimate firing or a separation and just bad words and bad vibes for a while," said Ryan. "We are in a political season and if this president does decide to do anything right now he's going to distance himself from those two. He cannot afford to cut off himself from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as well as the head of [Department of Defense]. He just cannot do that."
Capt. Gail Harris, who was the highest-ranking female African American in the U.S. Navy until her retirement in Dec. 2001, reiterated Milley's comment that it is against the rules to be at a political event of any kind. She said she was glad to see he apologize.
"I think the fact that he apologized and he mentioned he made a mistake is reaffirming his capability as a good leader," Capt. Harris went on. "He did come out and apologize and the standards are the same for all of us, flag officers to E1, as we call it in the military, the enlisted man. The policy's the same for everyone."
Military leaders indicated this week that they were open to renaming bases after people that didn't lose in the Civil War, but Trump threatened to stop any pay raises for troops if they even talked about it. As a fact-check, the budget for the DOD is decided by Congress, not the president.
"I was disappointed," Capt. Harris said about Trump's threat. "If you go back and look at history Gen. Lee himself was against monuments and things about the Civil War saying that by keeping symbols alive it keeps the division alive and he was more on healing the nation to move forward. So, my hope is that if President Trump looks into that or listens to people and the reasons for wanting to do that, that he'll change his mind."
Ryan said that Trump's position to defend the Confederate losers is part of his efforts to excite his base while they're experiencing isolation in a world on the cusp of change. She said that it's also happening at a moment when Trump himself "does not seem to have strength, showing strength or a winning picture."
"You have to remember, No. 1, the U.S. military is one of the first agencies that was integrated in this nation in 1948," she recalled. "President Truman officially integrated the military. Two, when you talk about the Confederacy, plain and simple, it is about slavery. The Civil War was fought on the issue of slavery, and the Confederacy wanted to keep slaves. That's end-of-story. So, in the midst of the racial moments, these racial upsets, unrest, outbreaks this president is showing that he is defiant about trying to heal this nation."
She noted that there are finally even people talking about reparations for the sin of slavery.
"And he is refusing to take down anything that deals with the Confederacy," she continued. "We even have NASCAR talking away the Confederate Flag and the president saying he doesn't want to deal with that moment of taking away the names from Ft. Bragg and other -- about ten other military bases that deal with Confederacy at the time when you have black and brown soldiers on those bases."
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