Kerry tears into Trump for skipping visit to military cemetery: 'Truculent child president'

[riversedge]

Source: The Hill



By Emily Birnbaum - 11/15/18 09:17 AM EST



.......................

"People are tired of the embarrassment of what took place in Paris in the last few days," Kerry said on BBC Radio 4, according to The Guardian. "We cannot have a truculent child president. We need something serious."

Trump has been hit with criticism for backing out of a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial in Belleau, France, last weekend. He was in France to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I.

The White House said Trump was unable to visit the military cemetery due to inclement weather, and, on Tuesday, Trump tweeted he was urged to back out of the visit by Secret Service because a motorcade would cause a disturbance.

"I was appalled that rain drops prevented the president from going to pay honor to those that died in rain, gas, snow and mud," Kerry said in the interview. "That was the reason he came to Paris."...............................

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/416863-kerry-tears-into-trump-for-skipping-visit-to-military-cemetery-truculent-child

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Glad to see that John Kerry is keeping this issue alive.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. He came to Paris to rub elbows w putin...Kerry is 100% correct though.

I voted for Pres Kerry.

[orleans]

26. my first thought was that he went to see his russian pal n/t

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

27. He's so transparent and shallow.

Thinks we're allll a bunch of rubes.

[SummerSnow]

2. Don't waste your breath Kerry, he has no empathy.

[flibbitygiblets]

7. Not wasted breath. We need to keep this issue alive

This was a god dammed disgrace. Not a peep from the Republicans.

Trump will care if he keeps hearing about it.

[SummerSnow]

11. No republican senator or house member has said a word

even those who are vets.

[flibbitygiblets]

12. Exactly! Where is the outrage?

Any Dem in office would have been crucified for a stunt like that.

Our fallen heroes were disrespected by a draft dodger! What does the Right have to say about that?

cue crickets

[SummerSnow]

13. If they are asked they will deflect

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

28. Just like we are supposed to respect the 'office of the president"

he has to respect each and every one of us as the 'citizenry' and start doing his job and representing us as a vital and formal piece of Democracy as well. Respect our role/office as well red don.

[Achilleaze]

3. "Slowboat the republican misleader* with truth and honor." - America's Veterans

* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief and Casino Sharpie.

Ghostly message from across the pond:

[EarnestPutz]

19. You've got to love Winston Churchill.

It seems that whenever there is an affront to our humanity,
there is a pithy quote that puts things in their proper context.

[Achilleaze]

22. Hot new Dem Dance Craze: Slowboatin for Truth

[Judi Lynn]

25. So well done. I've never seen it before you posted it. Thank you, very much. n/t

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

4. John Kerry is the perfect one to make this statement.

He is everything Trump isn't: a Vietnam veteran, a decorated war hero, a statesman, and most of all, articulate. No matter what side of the aisle you sit, no one questions Kerry's integrity and willingness to put his country's needs above his own. He knows Putin is an adversary, and not a BFF

And he's not afraid to get his hair wet, I'll bet.

[flibbitygiblets]

9. +1 nt

[karynnj]

14. I think you hit it on the nail

I have noticed that the Obama team seem to pick and choose who responds. For all the reasons stated, Kerry is perfect for responding. I remember a photo of a 2004 rally in the Midwest where Kerry and his daughters stayed speaking as pouring rain came down. All smiles.

However, it might be the timing of him being in England a book tour.

[KelleyKramer]

5. Notice how the media makes sure to print Trumps lying excuses right in the middle of Kerrys comments

Good for Kerry for calling out Trump for being a disgrace to our country in front of the world

[Ohiogal]

6. I doubt Donnie knows what "truculent" means.

There you go, Mr. Kerry, using those big words again!

[kairos12]

18. He thinks it means loaning a pickup.

[robbob]

20. Use in a sentence:

Where is that truculent me?

[kairos12]

23. Exactly!

[Paladin]

8. trump is probably tweeting Jerome Corsi for help in putting together a response.

Back before he organized the whole Birther thing, the sub-human Corsi was one of the driving forces behind the repulsive Swift Boater movement that did such unjustified damage to John Kerry.

[Nitram]

10. I can just hear Trump: "Truculent? I'm not a truck driver. Fake News!"

[UpInArms]

15. I have so much admiration for John Kerry

Complete John Kerry Testimony, 04/22/71

STATEMENT OF JOHN KERRY, VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR

Mr. KERRY. Thank you very much, Senator Fulbright, Senator Javits, Senator Symington, Senator Pell. I would like say for the record, and also for the men behind me who are also wearing the uniforms and their medals, that my sitting here is really symbolic.. I am not here as John Kerry. I am here as one member of the group of 1,000, which is a small representation of a very much larger group of veterans in this country, and were it possible for all of them to sit at this table they would be here and have the same kind of testimony.

I would simply like to speak in very general terms. I apologize if my statement is general because I received notification yesterday you would hear me and I am afraid because of the injunction I was up most of the night and haven't had a great deal of chance to prepare.

WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION
I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.
It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit, the emotions in the room, the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam, but they did. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do.

They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

We call this investigation the "Winter Soldier Investigation." The term "Winter Soldier" is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776 when he spoke of the Sunshine Patriot and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough.

We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.

[zaj]

16. "Truculent".... why Kerry lost in 2004 in one word

Man, John Kerry is great, but...

Kerry, Gore, Dukakis and even Hillary Clinton to a lesser degree... were all just so bad at being relatable.

Dems need candidates that are both intelligent, passionate and authentically relatable.

Bill Clinton, Beto, Bernie, Obama... they all are relatable to many more people. They all speak in ways that *any* person can understand.

That ability, perhaps more than any other... is the difference between winning and losing.

[SunSeeker]

21. Sad, but true. The average American reads at an 8th grade level.

I took a journalism class in college and they told us to write so that it is understoodable by someone with an 8th grade reading level, because that is what the average American has.

I think we may be slipped further since then. That was decades ago. I think now it is more like 5th grade, judging by people's inability to distinguish "they're" from "their."

[karynnj]

24. Not all years were the same

Bill Clinton and likely all the others named would have lost 2004. Bill Clinton was lucky to run against a President who was ultimately at about 30% approval and Perot had been mostly hitting Bush, before he freaaked out and withdrew - only to return months later. Of all the years the others ran, 2004 was the one we were least likely to win. In December 2003, Bush was at 60 percent.

Not to mention, the media completely failed in giving huge coverage to the SBVT liars after they were caught in multiple lies. The media then just let them move to the next set of claims -- from a book that had hundreds of mutually contradicting claims. The reason - considewr that it was possibly the reunion with Rassman (the marine he saved in Vietnam) that led to the size of his win in the Iowa primary. Obviously, nothing he did in 1968/69 affected his credientials to be president, but they showed his courage, intelligence and his character. As it was, with enough machines in Ohio, he would have won.

[niyad]

17. I would have left off the "president'" part. truculent child is apt.