Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., didn’t back off his criticism of President Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly during a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute event Tuesday.
Gutierrez has faced criticism from Republicans and fellow Democrats for recently saying Kelly, a retired Marine general who led the United States Southern Command under former President Obama, “is a hypocrite who is a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear.”
Kelly rebuked Gutierrez on Monday in an email Sunday to Fox News in which he suggested the lawmaker is an “empty barrel” that makes the most noise.
“They can call people liars, but it would be inappropriate for me to say the same thing back at them. As my blessed mother used to say, ‘Empty barrels make the most noise,” Kelly said.
Guiterrez told the crowd at Tuesday’s event that he did not feel it was inappropriate to attack Kelly, who is seen as a key figure as Congress wrestles with immigration.
“He’s a politician, okay, not a general. I don’t see a uniform. He’s a politician who works for Donald Trump,” Gutierrez said. “A politician who didn’t stand up when the president of the United States attacked a real war hero, John McCain.”
He went on to rail against Kelly for his silence when Trump attacked Gold Star father Khizr Khan and not offering more vocal opposition to the president’s proposed ban on transgender individuals serving in the military.
Guiterrez also condemned Kelly for not speaking out against Trump’s reversal of the Obama-era immigration policy for children of illegal immigrants, the Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“What could be more mean and more vicious than to say you’ve got six months to pack up your bag and to leave the United States of America?”, Guiterrez asked.
