How exactly White House Chief of Staff John Kelly came to the conclusion that Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) had claimed credit for securing $20 million for an FBI building in Florida is, to put it mildly, a total mystery. It's an accusation Kelly made Wednesday as he attacked Rep. Wilson in an attempt to scapegoat her for Donald Trump's abysmal handling of fallen soldiers and Gold Star families.
Kelly had attended the dedication of the FBI building in 2015, where Wilson spoke about the two slain FBI agents it was named after, Special Agents Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove, who died in 1986 while pursuing bank robbers in south Miami. Here's Kelly's recollection of Wilson's speech:
“A congresswoman stood up, and in a long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there in all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money, and she just called up President Obama, and on that phone call, he gave the money, the $20 million, to build the building, and she sat down,” Kelly told reporters.
I’m not sure what speech Kelly witnessed, but it didn't bear any resemblance whatsoever to the 9-minute dedication captured on video by the Sun-Sentinel and posted with the headline, "Full video of Frederica Wilson's 2015 speech at new FBI building."
In some ways, Wilson gave a classic political speech, in the sense that she started out by recognizing all the other politicos and VIPs in the room and ended by lauding the law enforcement officers and first responders who put their lives on the line every day.
But in other ways, it was actually an unusual show of bipartisanship as she name-checked all lawmakers—Republicans and Democrats alike—who helped make the dedication possible on an extremely short timeline.
Wilson did claim credit for spearheading the effort to speed along the official naming process, legislation that often takes eight months to a year to clear Congress. The FBI had come to her only about a month before the ribbon cutting, she explained, asking for her help in dedicating the building to agents Grogan and Dove.
It seemed an impossible timeline, but as a former principal, she said, "Immediately, I went into attack mode." Then she proceeded to credit former GOP House Speaker John Boehner ("He went into attack mode"), her Republican counterpart, Rep. Carlos Curbelo, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio ("They hotlined it to the Senate floor in just two days”).
Frankly, that's more bipartisanship than we as Americans are privy to in the course of most years, but it also wasn't the mainstay of Wilson's speech by any stretch of the imagination. She connected the quick legislative work back to the admiration lawmakers have for the work the FBI does.
"It is a miracle to say the least, but it speaks to the respect that our Congress has for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the men and women who put their lives on their line every single day. And today we're providing a boost to our nation by naming this fantastic building in honor of special agents Benjamin P. Grogan and Jerry L. Dove, who died valiantly on Friday, April 11, in what is still considered that bloodiest gun battle in storied history of the FBI."
Wilson then noted the bravery of FBI agents and others who go to work every morning aware that they may not return home at the end of the day.
"If I may, will all men and women and first responders who work in law enforcement, stand up, stand up now, so that we can applaud you and what you do. Stand up! We are proud of you! We're proud of your courage!”
Wilson drove the point home by recounting the details of the 1986 shootout in which Grogan and Dove died and five other agents were injured.
"Today, it is our patriotic duty," Wilson said, "to lift up Special Agent Benjamin Grogan and Special Agent Jerry Dove from the street in south Florida and place their names and pictures high, where the world will know that we are proud of their sacrifice, a sacrifice for our nation."
"It is only fitting," she concluded, "that their names should be placed on the same mantle with the letters, FBI, because Special Agents Grogan and Dove embody the sacred motto for which the agency has become known. Please repeat it after me: Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity. God bless you! God bless the FBI! And God bless America."
I've witnessed a lot of blowhard speeches after covering politics for the past decade—this was not one of them. It struck me as on point, gracious, unusually bipartisan, and appropriately laudatory given the context.
And assuming the Sun-Sentinel posted the full video, nowhere did Wilson claim credit for getting $20 million to complete the building. She was crystal clear on this point when she spoke to the Miami Herald Thursday night.
In fact, she said Washington approved the money before she was even in Congress. The legislation she sponsored named the building after Grogan and Dove, a law enacted just days before the ceremony.
Sorry, but short of this all being some crazy mixup, one has to ask: Has John Kelly joined his boss in the parallel universe of Planet Trump? Because his version of events bears not even a scintilla of resemblance to the way things really went down.
In his remarks Wednesday, Kelly, a former Marine general, claimed, "We don't look down upon those of you who haven't served." But his entire takedown of Wilson as an "empty barrel" who took too much credit at an FBI naming ceremony pulsed with disdain. Whatever that disdain was borne of, it clearly had no basis in reality.