Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) didn’t hold back in his condemnation of President Donald Trump for choosing to appear at a golf tournament in Florida instead of at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer of the four U.S. soldiers who died in Lithuania.
Kelly reacted on Friday to the uproar caused by Trump’s snub of the fallen soldiers during an appearance on "The Rachel Maddow Show,” where he not only threw barbs at Trump but also at his allies – both inside and outside his MAGAfied administration.
“You do not want to get between Donald Trump and a golf tournament, or the first tee,” Kelly said. “He puts that at a very high premium on his schedule.”
But, according to Kelly, the presidential approach should be expected coming from Trump.
“What he said in the Oval Office about these missing soldiers just showed a total lack of empathy,” the Arizona Democrat added. “And you're right, he’s consistent…this is a guy who during his first term called dead marines who died at Belleau Wood, ‘suckers and losers,’ so we shouldn't be surprised.”
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Kelly, a decorated veteran and former astronaut, wasn’t done laying into Trump and the MAGA figures surrounding his administration. He next went after reports that right-wing influencer Laura Loomer swayed the president to fire high-level intelligence officials, including the head of the National Security Agency.
“First of all, we shouldn't have an internet troll being the White House's HR department, right?” Kelly said. “I mean, here's a person that clearly does not have the background and the knowledge and the information to make hiring and firing decisions in the White House, especially these kinds of decisions.”
He concluded: “The president has it wrong,” and added that Gen. Timothy Haugh, who was dismissed this week along with his civilian NSA deputy Wendy Noble, “did not deserve to be fired.”
“I mean, he's the kind of guy you want to keep in a position like this,” Kelly said. “And when you when you consider what has happened with the sharing of classified and sensitive information from the secretary of defense, the person the president should have fired was Pete Hegseth, who is totally unqualified for this job.”
