NYT: White House Chief of Staff Kelly Too Patriotic on Immigration
10/27/2017
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From the news pages of the New York Times:

Pitched as Calming Force, John Kelly Instead Mirrors Boss’s Priorities

By PETER BAKER OCT. 25, 2017

WASHINGTON — This past summer, the Trump administration debated lowering the annual cap on refugees admitted to the United States. Should it stay at 110,000, be cut to 50,000 or fall somewhere in between? John F. Kelly offered his opinion. If it were up to him, he said, the number would be between zero and one.

Mr. Kelly’s comment made its way around the White House, according to an administration official, and reinforced what is only now becoming clear to many on the outside. While some officials had predicted Mr. Kelly would be a calming chief of staff for an impulsive president, recent days have made clear that he is more aligned with President Trump than anticipated.

For all of the talk of Mr. Kelly as a moderating force and the so-called grown-up in the room, it turns out that he harbors strong feelings on patriotism, national security and immigration that mirror the hard-line views of his outspoken boss.

What America needs is a chief of staff (not to mention a President) with wishy-washy feelings on patriotism, national security, and immigration.
… liberals condemned what they deemed an outdated view of a modern, pluralistic society. …

Mr. Kelly’s focus on improving information flow and decision making in the West Wing gave the impression of a good soldier mainly concerned with process. But that obscured a player who expresses his own sharp views in selected areas, most notably immigration, where he shares Mr. Trump’s commitment to toughening the border and deporting many in the country illegally. His views were forged in part by his time heading the United States Southern Command, which oversees American military operations and security in Central and South America and in the Caribbean.

What could be more calming than more massive immigration?
Mr. Kelly not only expressed willingness to curb refugees coming into the country — in the end, Mr. Trump lowered the cap to 45,000 — he embraced Mr. Trump’s various attempts to close the border to visitors from a group of predominantly Muslim countries.
Having more extremely agitated Muslim terrorists like Farook and Mateen in the country makes me feel calmer. What’s wrong with this Kelly psycho? Why can’t he CALM DOWN???
Correction: October 27, 2017

An article on Thursday about the White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, misidentified the branch of the armed forces in which his son, who was killed in combat, served. He was a Marine, not a soldier.

[Comment at Unz.com]

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