Scarborough: Trump used Kelly family as ‘political throwaway line’

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough on Tuesday blasted President Trump’s comments saying the press should ask chief of staff John Kelly if former President Obama called him after his son died in Afghanistan.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Scarborough said Trump did something “utterly despicable regarding John Kelly’s dead son.”

“And now has put John Kelly in a position where I just don’t know how he continues without an explanation of how Donald Trump, the man he works for, uses his son’s death as a political — a political throwaway line,” Scarborough said.

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“That’s what he did. There’s no mistaking it. He used the Kelly family’s horrific loss just as a political throwaway line on talk radio.”

Scarborough’s comments come after Trump sparked controversy Monday when he claimed Obama didn’t call the families of fallen soldiers.

On Tuesday, Trump said the press should ask Kelly if Obama called him after his son died in Afghanistan.

“To the best of my knowledge, I think I’ve called every family of somebody that’s died, and it’s the hardest call to make,” Trump told Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade. “As far as other representatives, I don’t know, I mean you could ask Gen. Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?”

“I don’t know what Obama’s policy was,” he added. “I write letters, and I also call.”

Kelly’s son, Marine 2nd Lt. Robert Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. A White House official confirmed to The Hill that John Kelly did not receive a call from Obama at the time.

Obama hosted Kelly at a breakfast for Gold Star families about six months after his son died, according to The Associated Press.