No doubt everybody's seen this video and heard the first-order commentary on the utter mortification on Chief of Staff John Kelly's lips as the boss is saying, in essence, to the German chancellor, "No puppet! No puppet! You're the puppet!" while the stricken smile of our ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, is saying, "Well, bless his heart!" as one does in a Texas Baptist church when one's brother-in-law starts hallucinating again and drops his trousers and takes a dump on the altar table during the collection. I'm pretty sure it's not the first time we've seen Kelly making that face, but his involuntary leg movements—as if they want to escape and he can barely command them—are something else.
You've probably also heard how the press secretary acknowledged that Kelly was upset, but didn't acknowledge that he was upset because people whose opinion he values were seeing him as the helpless imprisoned tool of your impulsive and not very bright old uncle with the serious anger issues who nurses his rage from dawn till dusk at the teat of the TV, or because the grandest military alliance in human history was perhaps being shattered before his eyes. No,
In a statement to The Post, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "[Kelly] was displeased because he was expecting a full breakfast and there were only pastries and cheese." (Washington Post)
Like the axe murderer in the Snickers commercial who turns out to be Jan Brady once she gets down some calories. Give Kelly his bacon and eggs and he'll be Dean Acheson.
And what on earth made you think it had something to do with the
president?
We know Huckabee-Sanders lies all the time, too. There's nothing new here! And yet I can't stop feeling some kind of line has really been crossed this time. Like, she can't really be expecting people to cooperate with this one, can she? Can she?
Update: Not even close. For one thing, it was Americans, in the form of Ambassador Hutchinson's residence, who paid for breakfast. and for another, there was plenty to eat.
Thus offering an explanation that is not only hilariously unbelievable but also throws a (distinguished Republican) colleague under the bus. In this way Huckabee Sanders provides an illustration of Trumpiness in which mendacity, stupidity, and treachery may be combined more intimately than they have ever been. H/t
Cullen Martin.