John Kelly did not call Donald Trump an idiot. At least that's the word from an official White House response drafted by Press Secretary Sarah Sanders in response to early takes on the new book by Bob Woodward, Fear. Other than adding another “I did not say that” to Kelly’s long list of things he said, but didn’t officially say, the White House press release calls Woodward’s book “nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees.”
Since Donald Trump has insisted that the White House is just a “smoothly running machine” with “changing parts,” it appears that some of the parts who were changed—and some that weren’t—are squeaking pretty loudly. Past members of Trump’s White House crew can’t be surprised that Sarah Sanders is calling them liars.
The whole of the statement is the usual Trump apologia, with side trips into how Trump “has broken through the bureaucratic process” and how “Democrats and their allies in the media understand the President’s policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020 – not even close.”
But the stand-out section of the official knee-scuffing from John Kelly.
Kelly: The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true.
Kelly also called the story “total BS” and said that Woodward’s book was “another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump.” Actually, as Kelly admirably demonstrates, the people close to Trump are quite capable of smearing themselves. And coming off as sadly pathetic. As Kelly does here.
The remainder of the “rebuttal” doesn’t actually address anything said in book, but is instead a list of “accomplishments.” So the entire White House press release actually refutes 1 (count ‘em) word out of Woodward’s 448-page book. And maybe Kelly really didn’t call Trump an idiot. After all, he could have always gone with a Rex Tillerson-esque “moron.” Kelly also makes no statement about the book’s claims that he also called Trump “unhinged,” or any of the other comments attributed to him—such as the claim that he told Gary Cohn to stick his resignation up Trump’s ass.
What kind of accomplishments made Trump’s list of not-a-refutation of the book?
- Process has begun to make the Space Force the 6th branch of the armed forces.
- Withdrew from the horrible, one-sided Iran Deal.
- Issued executive order to keep open Guantanamo Bay.
- Opened ANWR & Approved Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines.
- We are committed to VOCATIONAL education.
That last one is in all caps in the press release so you don’t mistakenly believe that Trump supports any other sort of education. And those are the things Trump is bragging about.
Funny what’s not on Trump’s list this time —anything to do with Korea or Russia.