CNN Exclusive: Retired General John Kelly responds to Trump's Medal of Honor comments

(CNN) — Former Trump chief of staff and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly rejected former President Donald Trump’s comments that the Presidential Medal of Freedom that honors civilians was “much better” than the Medal of Honor given to service members, telling CNN that the two honors are “Not even close. No equivalency of any kind.”

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is “given for some good works done or in fewer cases for other considerations, but they’re not even close,” Kelly said.

“Think of Normandy, Iwo Jima, Vietnam or Fallujah,” Kelly told CNN. “The Medal of Honor is earned, not won, by incredibly brave actions on the battlefield under fire typically by very young men who joined when others did not to defend their country. Their oath to the nation is essentially the oath the president and members of Congress take, that federal judges take, that political appointees also take and includes ‘…that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties…’

“To the service member, the oath is sacred and taken with the understanding that one could be seriously wounded, captured or killed in living up to the words. No president, member of Congress, judge or political appointee — and certainly no recipient of the Presidential Medal — will ever be asked to give life or limb to protect the Constitution. The two awards cannot be compared in any way. Not even close.”

Trump on Thursday, when talking about giving GOP donor Miriam Adelson the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s top civilian honor, said it is “actually, much better” than the Medal of Honor “because everyone (who) gets the congressional medal of honor, that’s soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”

Over the weekend, asked if he wanted to clarify his comments, Trump told a local Pennsylvania television station, “I only heard when I say ‘better,’ I would rather, in a certain way, get it, because people that get the Congressional Medal of Honor — which I’ve given to many — are often horribly wounded or dead. They’re often dead. They get it posthumously. When you get the Congressional Medal of Honor — I always consider that to be the ultimate, but it is a painful thing to get it. When you get the Presidential Medal of Freedom, it’s usually for other things, like you’ve achieved great success in sports or you’ve achieved great success someplace else.”

Last October, Kelly confirmed on the record exclusively to CNN previous reporting that had appeared in The Atlantic magazine about Trump disparaging service members, describing Trump as “a person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.”

Trump has disputed that he made those comments, saying at CNN’s June debate, “that was a made-up quote.”

“To think that I would, in front of generals and others, say suckers and losers – we have 19 people that said it was never said by me,” Trump said.

And yet it is retired Marine general and Trump’s longest serving chief of staff Kelly who asserts Trump made those comments.

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