Congressman Elijah Cummings called for John Kelly to end the “ongoing distraction” caused by the botched condolence call to Green Beret widow Myeishia Johnson last week, by simply apologizing and putting the matter to rest. Cummings had a conversation with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday wherein he was calmly and refreshingly the voice of reason in this emotionally charged debate.
“I think that the families will tell you, they don’t want a political football. They simply want the same thing that the Benghazi families wanted. Number one, they wanted no political football, number two they wanted to find out exactly what happened, and number three they wanted to know what would be done to make sure it never happened again.”
Cummings went on to elaborate how Wilson was a hero with her mentoring program which touched the lives of thousands of youth in Florida. Cummings also spoke of how he admired John Kelly, calling him an honorable man.
“As a chief of staff, and a man, and a general, one who has commanded our troops, one who has been entrusted with the lives of so many of our young people, I think he needs to show an example for us all, he should say, ‘You know what, I went back and looked at the film, I was wrong and I’m sorry.’ And he needs to say to his boss, the president, something that I’ve said many times, president Trump needs to stop tweeting and simply start leading.”
Good luck with the last suggestion, but Cummings is right, it’s time to resolve this matter before it gets any worse and get on to more important things. Cummings exhibited far more leadership in this one conversation than anything we’ve seen out of the Trump administration and all the parties thereto since the inauguration. May Cumming’s wise, common sense counsel be heeded.