Trump was citing a historical fact. Lee was a great general, and every single Civil War historian and scholar who is not insane will verify the President's claim.
Posted on 10/12/2018 7:13:42 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
President Trump praised Confederate Geader Robert E. Lee as "a great general" on Friday during a campaign rally in Lebanon, Ohio.
"So Robert E. Lee was a great general. And Abraham Lincoln developed a phobia. He couldn’t beat Robert E. Lee," Trump said before launching into a monologue about Lee, Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.
"He was going crazy. I don’t know if you know this story. But Robert E. Lee was winning battle after battle after battle. And Abraham Lincoln came home, he said, 'I can’t beat Robert E. Lee,'" Trump said.
"And he had all of his generals, they looked great, they were the top of their class at West Point. They were the greatest people. There’s only one problem — they didn’t know how the hell to win. They didn’t know how to fight. They didn’t know how," he continued.
Trump went on to say, multiple times, that Grant had a drinking problem, saying that the former president "knocked the hell out of everyone" as a Union general.
"Man was he a good general. And he’s finally being recognized as a great general," Trump added.
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 13, 2018 Trump has drawn criticism for his defense of Confederate statues, including those of Robert E. Lee.
He drew widespread condemnation last year following a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., saying that white nationalist protesters were there to oppose the removal of a "very, very important" statue.
"They were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,” Trump said at the time. “This week it's Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”
Trump, speaking at another rally in Ohio last year, said that he can be one of the “most presidential” presidents to hold office. "…With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office,” he said to a crowd in Youngstown.
And if the South had won? What would this country look like now?
Defending their homes? From what?
And I’m glad they lost! Look what they were fighting to preserve. An economic system based on the use of slave labor. Not their homes, not their ‘honor’’, they were defending slavery.
Lee was a Virginian first. When his duly elected state government seceded from the Union, he followed. Virginia only seceded because Lincoln was attempting to coerce the states that had already seceded to remain in the Union using force.
True. Although he resigned his commission in the U.S. Military before he assumed a commission in the Confederate Army. The Constitution does not specify whether or under what procedures a state can voluntarily leave the Union.
Northern taxation and eventually northern invasion!!!
If it was all about slavery why did two “slave states” fight for the north!!!! Why was Lincolns first choice to lead his army a slave holder,why did his second choice defend slavery and why was his final choie a slave holder!!! Why did he give a speech saying if he could keep the union together he would accept slavery!!!
Once again, Trump is right. Lee was a great general. Everybody from Eisenhower to Winston Churchill along with many others have said so. There is NOTHING remotely “controversial” about that.....though of course we can count on Leftists and some misguided PC Revisionists here to try to claim his statement was in some way controversial.
99.9% of the Confederacy was made up of people who made less than a couple hundred dollars a year so spare me the whole “they were defending slavery bit”. The war was fought over what most wars are fought over.....money and power!!!
I'm not sure that was an error. Even with the odds against him at Gettysburg, trying for an unlikely victory on Union soil may have been the best chance Lee had. Sometimes you have to play the cards you're dealt.
That ...and the fact he was out numbered 10:1 and was going up against lever action rifle with single shot rifles.
“Grant learned the hard way how to be a greater one.”
Grant was tenacious with an unending supply line compared to Lee.
You mean like Washington was duty bound to the British!!!
Trump was citing a historical fact. Lee was a great general, and every single Civil War historian and scholar who is not insane will verify the President's claim.
Great man, great general but lost Gettysburg because poor decision making on his part.
Who was he fighting on behalf of and for what reason? And if the South had won? Lee and Davis are directly responsible for the costliest and bloodiest war in American history.
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