Thread by @bansisharma

1. John Kelly said:

1. “It’s never been that the president makes a decision based on no knowledge and ignorance. You may not like his decision, but at least he was fully informed on the impact.”

2. Trump never ordered him to do anything illegal.

msn.com/en-gb/kids/oth…

2. John Kelly on The Wall
When Kelly led Homeland Security in early 2017, he sought advice from those who “actually secure the border,” CBP agents. “They said, ‘We need a physical barrier in certain places, we need technology across the board, and we need more people,’” he said.

3. Asked if there is a security crisis at the Southern border, Kelly said, “We do have an immigration problem.” But he blamed immigrants and lawmakers, not the White House, for the tense situation at the border.

4. “If we don’t fix the laws, then they will keep coming,” Kelly continued. “They have known, and they do know, that if they can get here, they can, generally speaking, stay.”

5. Kelly faulted Trump admin for failing to follow procedure and failing to anticipate the public outrage for the two most controversial initiatives of his tenure: Trump’s travel ban in January 2017, and the “zero tolerance” immigration policy and family separations this year.

6. This surprised me.
In May, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions announced a zero-tolerance policy for immigration violations. Kelly said Sessions’ announcement caught the White House by surprise. “He surprised us.”

7. If you actually look at what Kelly has said, you get a fair and balanced picture of the Trump presidency, where a hard-nosed president with clear preferences appoints competent people and listens to them, even when they recommend things the president doesn't like.

8. If you read the journalists' interpretations, their mind-reading of the president, laced with remarks attributed to 'other' anonymous sources, you get a picture of disorder and chaos and autocratic decision making. I trust Kelly far more than the biased media hacks.

The End