eligold28

They bury the Dad’s full quote at the end of the article. And they REALLY buried the lede. “Simmons recalled something his son had told him before volunteering for the mission that ended his life. “He said, ‘Dad, I can’t give you any details, but if civilians knew what we knew, a lot of the criticism [of the war] would cease,” he said. Simmons came away from Dover with a better impression of the war’s architects than he had when he arrived. Trump teared up and hugged him, evincing warmth and compassion at odds with the president’s public persona, Simmons said. He also credited Trump for looking him “straight in the eye.” “He extended his condolences father to father and conveyed how difficult it is to make decisions to put the children of other parents in peril,” Simmons said. As for Hegseth, “When I talked to him, I got the impression that he was torn because he seemed to be a very compassionate man, faced with difficult decisions as it pertains to war,” Simmons said. “I also let him know that Tyler was my only son. And you could see the emotion on his face. And I think those kinds of things you can’t fake,” he continued. “I was pleasantly surprised because the perception is they [Trump and Hegseth] don’t care, they’re going to do what they want to do,” he said. “I got to see a different side of them up close and personal.”