Donald John Trump. No other president has had so many former top aides making such harsh public assessments. Most recently, Cassidy Hutchinson I think that Donald Trump is the most grave threat that we will face to our democracy in our lifetime and potentially in American history. She joins a growing chorus. I think he's unfit for office. He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else for him. And today, Trump's longest serving former chief of staff, John Kelly, is chiming in with his harshest criticism yet. In an exclusive statement to CNN, Kelly says about Trump. What can I add that is not already been said, calling President Trump, quote, a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about in the air. For the first time ever, Kelly sets the record straight with on the record confirmation of a number of damning details about Donald Trump from background sources, including from a 2020 Atlantic story reported with unnamed sources by editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Including the stunning detail that Trump turned to Kelly on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in 2017 and asked. I don't get it. What was in it for them. This is Kelly confirming on the record stories of Trump insulting Senator John McCain and former President George H.W. Bush. Because in Vietnam and in World War Two, respectively, the former aviators were shot down. Kelly describes Trump as, quote, a person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat or spend years being tortured as P.O.W.s are all, quote, suckers because, quote, there is nothing in it for them. A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because, quote, it doesn't look good for me. A person that demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family for all Gold Star families on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's defense are, quote, losers and wouldn't visit their graves in France. Kelly confirming on the record a story reported in the book The Divider, where Trump tells Kelly he wants a military parade like one he saw for Bastille Day in France. Except he does not want any wounded veterans. Kelly confirming that Trump in 2018 and France refused to visit graves of Americans killed in World War One to CNN. Kelly calls Trump a hypocrite saying he is, quote, not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on Evangelii, call Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. And he concludes, Trump is, quote, a person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution and the rule of law. He concludes. There is nothing more that can be said. God help us. He's doing a great job as chief of staff. A stunning repudiation by a man who worked side by side with Trump longer than any other of Trump's many chiefs of staff. Kelly also criticized Trump for saying that former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley should be executed in a departure speech on Friday. Milley responded, We don't take an oath to a king or queen. What a tyrant or dictator. We don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator. Some of the people who know Donald Trump the best. Now warning of the threat they think he poses if elected in November. 20, 24. Now, CNN reached out to the Trump campaign Monday afternoon, telling officials at the campaign that a former administration official had confirmed on the record a number of the details about the 2020 Atlantic magazine story. We did not name John Kelly but we wanted to see comment about the substance of that story. The Trump campaign responded with a statement insulting the character and credibility. Retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, who had nothing to do with the story. The Trump campaign also issued a statement insulting me, saying I should, quote, stop peddling fake news from shady sources. Unquote, which would be relevant, except the news is quite real and the source is quite impeccable. I'd like to bring in someone who worked alongside John Kelly, former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton. John, thanks for joining us. So for the first time, John Kelly, who's been very reluctant to do this on the record, but here he is confirming several stories that it really offended him greatly, especially ones that had to do with his attitude towards veterans, wounded soldiers killed soldiers Trump at Arlington Cemetery in 2017 standing among the graves of American soldiers who died in Afghanistan and Iraq and saying I don't get it what was in it for them from calling Americans who died in World War one losers not refusing to visit the cemeteries of World War One soldiers trump not wanting wounded veterans in a military parade because it would quote not be a good look for him. Did you hear any of these comments or anything like it? And do you have any reason to doubt John Kelly knowing him as you do? Well, first, I have no reason whatsoever to doubt what John said. I think he was saying exactly what he heard from Trump. Some of those things he had told me some some occurred before I arrived at the White House. The question of the the veterans day, the Armistice Day celebration in France, I did not hear those comments there. I think I'm sure John heard them when I was out of the room doing something else. I don't have any doubt that what John Kelly said was true. None whatsoever. Kelly's comments also square with the reporting from The Atlantic in a more recent story by Jeff Goldberg, a profile of General Milley that Trump didn't react well to seeing a severely wounded Army captain who was singing God Bless America at an event. In this more recent story by Goldberg. The profile of Milley, Trump said to Milley, Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that the wounded, unquote. I have to say, on a personal level, as somebody who who tries to do a lot of work to help our wounded soldiers, I don't even understand this point of view. These are our bravest of the brave. And this man was commander in chief and wants to be commander in chief again. And he doesn't want to see wounded soldiers. Explain that to me if you can. Well, I can tell you what John Kelly once told me about the visit to Walter Reed that occurred before I arrived, when most people when they see service members who have been grievously wounded are affected by it or stunned by the devotion to duty, the patriotism, the dedication of those who have they have sacrificed so much and endured such brutal wounds. Trump, he said, tried to stay away from it. And John Kelly interpreted it I think correctly as cowardice on Trump's part. A fear that something like that could have happened to him, could happen to him and he just didn't want to face it. I'm not a shrink. I don't make shrink diagnoses, but I think the coward ism analysis is correct. Trump's obviously the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. He's neck and neck with President Biden in the general election, if not slightly ahead. Does it concern you that he could once again serve as commander in chief and the head of the armed forces? Well, it appalls me that he could be elected president again. I don't have any sympathy for for his potential opponents on the Democratic side. I didn't vote for Biden or Trump in 20, 20. I'd like to see a conservative Republican on the ticket. Donald Trump is not a conservative Republican. And I think that, as I've said repeatedly on any number of occasions, he did damage in his first term, has largely been repaired. But that if he were elected to a second term this time, he might damage that would be irreparable. This is a very dangerous period. We're about to enter into here. And John Kelly also says that Trump is, quote, a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served this country for 40 years in peacetime, in war. This is a reference to General Milley should lose his life for treason, an expectation that someone will take action A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators, a person that is nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our constitution, and the rule of law. I know you agree with some of that because it was in your book, The Room Where It Happened. The idea it was interesting, though, that Kelly put in there that he thinks Trump accusing Milley of treason was done in order to encourage someone to act on that Well, it's look, it's entirely possible Trump Trump uses the word treason quite a bit. He called me a traitor. Others in his administration Mike Pompeo called me a traitor for writing a book. That's the way they do things. And it's entirely possible. That's what Trump wants to say. I think the central point of what John Kelly said in that particular quotation goes to really the essence of Donald Trump. The only thing he cares about is Donald Trump. Everything else is instrumental. The idea that he has a philosophy that we have really much of an idea of what he will do in his second term, freed from any electoral guardrails. Remember, he can't run for a third term. So the political constraints that he faced in his first term will be largely nonexistent. Simply enhance the danger of what may happen in a second term. And there are a lot of other Republicans who can actually be reasonable presidents of the United States. The party has to find a way to find that person and nominate him or her.
