Maher: Kelly now ‘acts like Trump’

HBO host Bill Maher said Friday that White House chief of staff Gen. John Kelly “was supposed to be the Trump-minder, but now he acts like [President] Trump.”

He made the comment following a Thursday press briefing where Kelly ripped Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) for reporting on a call Trump made to a military family, and for taking credit for funding an FBI building in 2015. 

“He smeared and lied. He smeared that congresslady and he lied about it. He was supposed to be the Trump-minder, but now he acts like Trump,” Maher said on his show “Real Time.” 

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“You can be this guy that everybody says ‘you are the man of unimpeachable integrity,’ or you can take political hit shots and be the hatchet man. You can’t do both,” Maher said of Kelly.

Kelly replaced Reince Priebus as Trump’s chief of staff in July, a move viewed as an effort to restore order in an often chaotic White House. 

The White House no longer disputes the content of the call between Trump and the family of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in Niger, that Wilson described as “insensitive” on Tuesday. She was present for the call, which was on speakerphone.

However, Kelly, whose son was killed in combat in Afghanistan, said Thursday that he was “stunned” that Wilson had listened in on the conversation, which he said should be “sacred.” 

Kelly also said that Wilson claimed to have taken credit for securing funding for an FBI field office in Miami, calling her an “empty barrel.” 

“If you don’t understand that reference, I’ll put it a little more simply — as we say in the South: all hat, no cattle,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday, standing behind Kelly’s criticism.

However, newly released video showed Kelly misrepresented Wilson’s 2015 remarks and she did not take credit for funding the building.