Skip to comments.

Posted on 10/20/2017 3:35:40 AM PDT by markomalley

Hours after Chief of Staff John Kelly's emotional defense of President Trump in the White House briefing room, Trump sent out the following tweet:

"The Fake News is going crazy with wacky Congresswoman Wilson (D), who was SECRETLY on a very personal call, and gave a total lie on content!" Trump wrote Thursday night.

The running feud between Trump and Wilson over Trump's condolence call to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson continues into Friday, as Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) was scheduled to appear on CNN's morning news show to react to Kelly calling her an "empty barrel."

In his remarks to reporters on Thursday, Kelly said, "It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in" on President Trump's conversation with Johnson's widow. "Absolutely stuns me," he repeated. He called Wilson's behavior "selfish." And he also called her an "empty barrel."

That comment came at the end of his remarks as Kelly noted that in April 2015, when he was still on active duty, "I went to the dedication of the new FBI field office in Miami. And it was dedicated to two men who were killed in a firefight in Miami against drug traffickers in 1986 by the name of Grogan and Duke," he said:

So, we go down. Jim Comey gave an absolutely brilliant memorial speech to those fallen men and the -- and to all of the men and women of the FBI who serve our country so well and law enforcement so well.

There were family members there. Some of the children that were there were only 3 or 4 years old when their dads were killed on that street in Miami-Dade. Three of the men that survived the fight were there and gave a rendition of how brave those men were and how they gave their lives.

And a congresswoman [Wilson] stood up, and in a long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there in all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money, and she just called up President Obama, and on that phone call, he gave the money, the $20 million, to build the building, and she sat down.

And we were stunned, stunned that she'd done it. Even for someone that is that empty a barrel, we were stunned.

But, you know, none of us went to the press and criticized. None of us stood up and were appalled. We just said, OK, fine.

So, I still hope, as you write your stories, and I appeal to America, that let's not let this maybe last thing that is held sacred in our society, a young man, a young woman going out and giving his or her life for our country, let's try to somehow keep that sacred.

But it eroded a great deal yesterday by the selfish behavior of a member of Congress.

More to come after Rep. Wilson speaks to CNN's "New Day."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.