“I don’t believe that General Kelly mischaracterized. He gave his account of what took place. General Kelly and his family have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. I think he’s led with honor and integrity. I think he’s doing a great job of chief of staff, and I don’t think he has anything to correct or apologize for.”
— White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, at a news briefing, Oct. 24, 2017
Sanders, in defending the remarks of White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly attacking Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.), said that “he gave his account of what took place.” That would leave this as a he-said-she-said situation except that a videotape emerged of Wilson’s speech at the 2015 dedication of a new FBI building in South Florida.
Kelly was angry at Wilson’s criticism of President Trump for his handling of a phone call to a widow of a U.S. soldier who died in Niger, and he decried Wilson as an “empty barrel.”
Here is a side-by-side view of what Kelly said vs. what actually happened. Needless to say, the White House earns Four Pinocchios.
Four Pinocchios
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