Post columnist: No more generals in civilian White House roles

Conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin argues that Congress should start “barring generals from acting in civilian capacities in the White House” in her latest piece on the controversy between the Trump administration and those criticizing its handling of Gold Star families. 

In a Sunday Washington Post column titled “Let’s not staff a White House with generals ever again,” Rubin wrote that White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine general, “gratuitously attacked” Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) when addressing reporters Thursday over President Trump’s phone call to the widow of a fallen service member.

Wilson entered the center of a media firestorm after calling the president’s remarks to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed during an ambush in Niger, “disrespectful” and calling Trump himself a “sick man.”

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“It stuns me that a member of Congress would’ve listened in on that conversation,” Kelly said of Wilson during a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room. “I thought at least that was sacred.”

Kelly also said Wilson had bragged about securing funding for a FBI field office in Miami during an opening ceremony in 2019, calling her an “empty barrel in the process,” a term Wilson deemed racist. 

Wilson was not a member of Congress when the funding was approved in 2009, and video of a speech she gave at the opening of the field office shows no such boast. She has since demanded an apology for “character assassination.” 

Rubin wrote in the Post that Kelly should be replaced and Congress should “stomp out creeping authoritarianism” by not allowing generals to work in civilian capacities in any administration. 

“Kelly’s eagerness to defend the president’s unconscionable behavior and Kelly’s own lack of respect for civilian politicians simply feed Trump’s demons,” Rubin writes. 

“Kelly should be replaced by someone who actually understands democratic governance and can deliver bad news and honest criticism to the president. Going forward, Congress needs to stomp out creeping military authoritarianism. Congress should start by barring generals from acting in civilian capacities in the White House,” she concludes. 

Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson, confirmed Wilson’s account of the call during a Monday appearance on “Good Morning America.” 

“What he said was — yes the president — said that he knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyways. And I was — it made me cry because I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said it. He couldn’t remember my husband’s name,” Johnson said.

Trump, however, disputed that version in a Monday tweet:

I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2017