【symbols for power and eroticism】

President Donald Trump's lies and symbols for power and eroticismfalsehoods still have the power to incite new levels of rage and disbelief.

Trump uttered one such falsehood on Monday, when he claimed that former President Barack Obama never got in touch with the families of United States soldiers who were killed while serving the country.

Many of Obama's former staff members defended their ex-boss, calling the statement "outrageous" and labeling Trump a "pathological liar."

Obama's defenders ranged from aides to speechwriters to former Attorney General Eric Holder.

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Ben Rhodes, a foreign policy adviser and speechwriter for Obama, also decried Trump, writing "Also: Obama never attacked a Gold Star family."

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Rhodes' note refers to the 2016 presidential campaign, when Trump attacked the parents of Humayun Khan, a Muslim U.S. soldier killed in Iraq in 2004. Khan's father, Khizr, blasted Trump at the Democratic National Convention, saying that the then-candidate was inciting hatred of Muslims.

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey, also defended former presidents from Trump's assault.

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In addition to defending the former president, Obama adviser David Axelrod asked that the nation not get dragged into another one of Trump's "sideshows."

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But Trump — whether by intent or default — is great at generating sideshows, and he continued to do so on Tuesday morning when he dragged Chief of Staff John Kelly into his fray.

“I mean, you could ask General Kelly did he get a call from Obama," Trump said during a radio interview. "You could ask other people. I don’t know what Obama’s policy was. I write letters, and I also call.”

Kelly — a former general and former head of the Department of Homeland Security — lost his son, a 2nd Lt., to a land mine in Afghanistan in 2010. According to Politico, Kelly sat with former First Lady Michelle Obama during a dinner for Gold Star families in 2011. Barack Obama was the host.

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