I Can’t Stop Laughing at John Kelly’s Response to Bob Woodward’s Book

Ron Sachs/ZUMA

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The White House just sent out some responses to Bob Woodward’s Trump book. This one made me laugh out loud.

From General Kelly: 

“The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true. As I stated back in May and still firmly stand behind: “I spend more time with the President than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship.  He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS.  I’m committed to the President, his agenda, and our country.  This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes.”

As he stated back in May, huh? Wonder what the context of that was….Oh, that’s right! It was the last time he was reported to have called Trump an idiot

White House chief of staff John Kelly has eroded morale in the West Wing in recent months with comments to aides that include insulting the president’s intelligence and casting himself as the savior of the country, according to eight current and former White House officials.

The officials said Kelly portrays himself to Trump administration aides as the lone bulwark against catastrophe, curbing the erratic urges of a president who has a questionable grasp on policy issues and the functions of government. He has referred to Trump as “an idiot” multiple times to underscore his point, according to four officials who say they’ve witnessed the comments.

Kelly called the allegations “total BS.”

“I spend more time with the president than anyone else and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship,” said Kelly in a statement. “He always knows where I stand and he and I both know this story is total BS. I am committed to the president, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes.”

Oh, and: In the White House chief of staff’s second statement denying that he calls the president an idiot behind his back, Kelly misstated the date of the first denial. It was April, not May.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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