John Kelly, who once served as Donald Trump's Chief of Staff, responded critically to Donald Trump's recent comments about Medal of Honor recipients.
Despite his decorated military background, Kelly chose to serve in Donald Trump's cabinet. For years, the former Chief of Staff did not publically acknowledge the horrible things that Trump said about military veterans and their families. Kelly, a Marine Corps General, is also a Gold Star parent. His son Robert, also a Marine, was killed in Afghanistan in 2010.
While recently awarding GOP mega-donor Miriam Adelson with the Medal of Freedom, Trump remarked:
"It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor. But civilian version. It’s actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that’s soldiers, they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead. [Adelson] gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman."
When asked abou tthe comments, Kelly told CNN:
"The Medal of Honor is earned, not won, by incredibly brave actions on the battlefield under fire typically by very young men who joined when others did not to defend their country. Their oath to the nation is essentially the oath the president and members of Congress take, that federal judges take, that political appointees also take and includes ‘…that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties."