When I first read and watched Gen Kelly’s presser yesterday I was really put off by the second half of it where he spoke about Rep. Wilson.
On reflection, though, and having grown up in a family with several narcissists in it, it is important to realize that Gen. Kelly is in the totally unenviable position of having to try to handle a racist, infantile but totally narcissistic man who has access to the nuclear codes of our country. I now believe that the first half of his presser was a reasonable and heartfelt explanation for us of what happened. That is, he gave Trump a perfectly good way to try to handle the call but Trump, being who he is, totally screwed it up since he has no compassion or empathy, and, notably not even the ability to have either.
The second half of his presser, I think, was for an audience of one. Anyone who has been trapped into having to “handle” a very narcissistic person will know instantly what this means. And, moreover, he will have to stand by his words in order to have any hope of dealing with his audience of one. And I am sure, like anyone who is trapped in this type of situation with a narcissist, he fervently wishes he didn’t have to be.
i don’t know if Gen Kelly is truly as bigoted as he sounded or as Lawrence O’Donnell thinks he is. I do believe though, that we will never truly find out until he is out from under the situation he finds himself in now. And if he isn’t as bigoted as he sounds (and I have a truly hard time believing that he is if he served so honorably and long in our racially diverse military) then he is truly still serving his country by, among other things, being willing to take the slings and arrows that are coming his way.
I believe the pictures we’ve all seen of his reactions to Trump’s speeches more truly reflect who he is. We will have to wait and see whether I’m right but we will have to wait until Trump is long gone to truly find out.
Just saying.