Trump Speaking At Fourth Of July "Salute To America"; Trump Salutes America and U.S. Military at July Fourth Event.
KEILAR: All right. We're back to discuss what we saw with the president's "Salute to America". John Kirby, as you -- you were watching this. You -- what would you have liked to have seen? As you have thought about how the military was used in this, which it was unusual. I mean, I think in a vacuum if you look at how the military was treated this was respectful. But this was -- it was odd for the Fourth of July. What do you think would have been a more fitting situation to see?</s>KIRBY: Well, in a perfect world, I would have preferred that he do what most presidents in recent memory have done and do something for military families on the South Lawn. Not give a big speech. But let's assume that wasn't going to happen. We were getting a spectacle out of him. I think a speech much less focused on the past and more on the future and sort of bringing us together, because we are a divided nation. That would have been helpful. I think a shorter speech would have been helpful. And I don't think it should have been wrapped around jingoism and militaristic virtue, because again, that -- yes, I'm proud of a being a veteran. My whole is -- my son is in the Navy. I'm proud of that, that history that we have in the service. But that's not the essence of being an American. It's part of it. And not every American serves nor should every have to serve in the military. That's another thing making this a great country. I think wrapping himself around bigger ideas of what it is to be American, to be something part of larger than yourself and to serve in other ways other than the uniform. And calling -- calling on Americans to find that sense of themselves and going forward and try to heal some of these divides, whether it's, you know, joining the peace corps or volunteering in the local community. Those are real stories. And that's what he should have called out. You know, he almost got there, Brie, just almost, when he called out a couple of local volunteers. And I thought, OK, that I can get around and that would be good to build this speech. That would be good to talk about on a day like today.</s>KEILAR: Talk about the American spirit more?</s>KIRBY: Talk about the average, everyday Americans out there, even today in California with this earthquake, checking on their neighbors, making sure people are OK. That's what that's what makes us who we are. This is not who we are. It's not about fly-overs and it's not about tanks. We're about taking care of one another. And I still think that if -- certainly you don't get this impression if you look at Twitter. I still think most Americans are like that. Most Americans would like to get beyond the bitterness that divides us right now. He could have tapped into that spirit that's out there, that goodwill. He didn't do it. He lost that opportunity.</s>KEILAR: Kate, were you surprised that he stayed on message? The White House had promised he's going to have a message of unity and to talk about the American story. I did think that could have been filled in a little more, talking about the American story.</s>BENNETT: Sure.</s>KEILAR: But he -- even though he's in the middle of it so it is about him. But he didn't talk about himself.</s>BENNETT: He didn't. He stayed on the script, which is something we hardly ever see him do. It's something I thought about, too, with the president and the first lady. They are very military proud. We've been on a number of trips with the first lady. And the second lady visiting military bases, visiting with troops, visiting with military families, this is something that this White House is focused on quite a bit. And I don't know how you bring that to translation today and how to make it feel like a story of real -- an American story, Founding Fathers, make us feel good. It felt sort of weird, I think. But to his credit, the president really spoke for a long time there, and I think even when he does speak off the prompter for speeches, he always goes off, you know, on his own tangents. We didn't see that today. Perhaps it was because Mrs. Trump was there maybe telling him not to. But certainly to that, he stuck to it.</s>KEILAR: He clear went in with a mission and stuck to it.</s>BENNETT: He did. He stuck to it.</s>LIZZA: Look, Trump is an incredibly polarizing figure and all of us bring our knowledge of his history and our own biases about how we feel about him to any event like this and a speech like this. You know, it has to be said there are millions of Americans who watched the speech and probably don't have any criticism, thought it was just a perfectly ordinary 4th of July address. And that's the nature of our politics right now. You can't -- you're not going to insert Donald Trump into something like the 4th of July and not have a sort of huge diversity of opinions about it. You know, my test for when Trump does something kind of off the wall is what if Barack Obama had done this or said this, what Trump supporters -- how would they have reacted? A useful exercise, what if Barack Obama had given this speech, how would we have reacted.</s>SWERDLICK: I think of an example. In 2009, President Obama wanted to give the closed circuit TV address to the nation's school children, to your point. He did give that address. Most of the speech, you can look it up online, is about telling kids to do their homework and not everybody is going to be a professional musician or athlete. Sometimes some people just have to get good grades and go to school and go on with their lives. And Republicans had a fit that he wanted to address Americans on that subject. It's not an exact parallel, Ryan. But to your point, it is a good test. How would people have reacted if this had been Obama?</s>KEILAR: I think we saw him swerving away from the 4th of July. It seems to me that this holiday is about the ideals that inspired the birth of the United States and declaring independence, and those are all popular things to talk about. He seemed to swerve away, I would say, from what the mission is of the 4th of July, but he moved into something very popular, which is the military. And so because of that you have people who will say, well, what's really the matter with that?</s>SWERDLICK: Right, right.</s>KIRBY: Because he shoe horned, what he really wanted to do on Vets Day to the 4th of July. He got talked out of doing it on Veterans Day which would have been an appropriate time to honor the military, although I still disagreed with that on ostentatious way. I didn't agree with it. But Pentagon kind of talked him out of it because the cost which I think was estimated $92 million or something like that. So, he backed off of that. And he's shoe horned it on the 4th of July. He leapfrogged it ahead into July because he couldn't do it last November. It was always in his mind after seeing Bastille Day in 2017 to do a big military display, and he was just looking for a day to do it. It ended up on the 4th of July which I think is totally the wrong holiday for it.</s>KEILAR: Is there -- is there -- do you see him sort of co-opting the military, politicizing the military?</s>KIRBY: Yes, of course. Every time he gets in front of a crowd of troops he does that. And what I worry about, Brianna, is that, you know, over time we're just going to become sort of immune to this. That it's just going to be OK to have the commander in chief get up --</s>LIZZA: Just to play devils advocate a little bit, is what he did today fundamentally worse -- I'm open to not knowing the answer to this and thinking it through. Is what he did any different than George W. Bush landing on that aircraft carrier or any of the other --</s>KEILAR: He was tremendously criticized for doing that.</s>LIZZA: With Trump, because he pushes things so much, I think it's really important to think through, did previous presidents do this and we're just reacting a little differently because it's Trump? Or is this genuinely moving the bar? That's always the key question.</s>KIRBY: That's a fair question, Ryan. Everything has to be kept in context. He is not like any other prior president or commander in chief. And yes, Bush got beat up for doing the mission accomplished on the carrier, and that was inappropriate. But it wasn't quite on the level of this. You have to consider the context of this guy and how he wraps himself in the flag. He calls them "my generals." He sort of co-opts military virtues. And what I worry about is not just the politicization of military, but the militarization of politics in this country.</s>KIRBY: We're more sensitive with this stuff with Trump because he praises strong men and he doesn't talk about officers abroad. That's why when we see him hugging the military, it worries us a little bit more.</s>KEILAR: All right, you guys, stand by for me.</s>RYAN: Brianna --</s>KEILAR: We have to leave it there, April, I'm sorry. On this 4th of July. I'm Brianna Keilar. Thank you so much for watching. Happy 4th of July to you, and the news continues here on CNN. END