Calls intensify for John Kelly to apologize for lying

Even a Republican senator declared such a notion un-American.

Kelly attempted to defame and dismiss Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson after she called out Donald Trump for lying about his cruel comments to Myeshia Johnson, the Gold Star widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, one of the four U.S. soldiers killed in an attack in Niger.

Kelly’s attacks were quickly and definitively proven to be nothing but lies in service of covering for Trump’s shameful behavior.

And the calls for Kelly to apologize to Wilson are rapidly growing.

As the editorial board of the Washington Post put it, the need for Kelly to apologize is “the only conclusion that can be drawn” after listening to his remarks lambasting Wilson as a self-enriching publicity seeker, and then watching the video of Wilson which flatly disproves Kelly’s claims.

“Mr. Kelly got it all wrong,” the Post editorial board declares. “He needs to set the record straight.”

Retired Army Colonel Jack Jacobs, a Medal of Honor recipient, also called Kelly out.

“Attacks like this don’t make sense,” Jacobs told MSNBC’s Joy Reid, noting that if he were in Kelly’s shoes, he would apologize.

“I mean, I’d pick up the phone and say, ‘Look, this has gone far enough, I apologize,'” Jacobs added. “But that should have been the case from the very beginning when whatever is emanating from the White House was inaccurate as well.”

Intelligence expert and former U.S. Navy senior chief petty officer Malcolm Nance echoed the statements of Jacobs and the Washington Post, and added a forceful call for apology on behalf of the entire nation.

“I’m going to talk to [Kelly] senior NCO to general: Right is right and wrong is wrong,” Nance stated, “and this needs to be set right.”

This isn’t an issue of going after Kelly’s integrity, Nance pointed out. “It’s a question of maintaining the integrity of this nation.”

“General Kelly needs to apologize to Congresswoman Wilson, and he needs to talk to the president and shut this thing down. And from this point onward, we need to honor these fallen soldiers.”

Trump has proven himself to be someone nigh incapable of ever apologizing, admitting fault, or accepting blame for anything.

Kelly was supposed to be the adult in the room, reining Trump in and protecting the country and the world from his worst impulses and his basest behavior.

As this episode has shown, however, Kelly’s own character is not so far removed from that of his boss. And if he has any concern for his reputation beyond his time in the White House, it would behoove him to listen to the calls from his peers and apologize sincerely to Wilson and the Johnson family.