Former Top Army Official Flames Speaker Johnson for Creating Award Just for Trump: ‘Beneath That Office To Kiss Ass’

Former Under Secretary of the Army Patrick Murphy slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Thursday for giving President Donald Trump a newly created award, claiming it was “beneath that office to kiss ass.”

Murphy, who also served in Congress from 2007 to 2011, joined CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront to discuss the golden statue Johnson presented Trump with at the annual National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser on Wednesday. Johnson announced that the committee had created the honor as a “token of our appreciation for his leadership.”

The House Speaker was brutally mocked online, with many calling out the Republican Party for its fawning treatment of the president. Murphy struck a similar tone, likening the award to a “participation trophy.”

“It’s like a participation trophy to the Commander in Chief, as if he needs another one,” Murphy told Erin Burnett.

He continued:

I taught constitutional law at West Point, and in our Constitution, it talks about a coequal branch of government. The speaker of the House is one of the congressional leaders of a coequal branch of government. It’s beneath that office to kiss ass. You know, these members of Congress, if they were in the military like I was in Iraq, I would court-martial their asses. That’s how embarrassed I am of the Congress of the United States right now. It’s up to Congress to declare war. We’re sending thousands of our young men and women to Iran in the Iran war. My old unit, the 82nd Airborne Division, U.S. Marines. And they want to give a participation trophy to the president? This isn’t a joke.

Burnett later asked Murphy about recent reports that Trump gets a daily two-minute video briefing of “stuff blowing up” in Iran, questioning the former congressman about the “celebratory nature” of the Trump administration regarding the war.

“I mean, it’s beneath the office, Erin. I mean, it really is. I mean, these men and women, we have 2.5 million active troops in our military. They take a blood oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. They are willing to put their lives on the line,” Murphy said in response. “Their families, those 2.5 million American families, are praying every night, going to bed, hoping their sons and daughters are going to be okay. And I have these jokers giving out fake trophies that are laughing about videos like it’s a video game. This is life and death. This is as serious as a heart attack. And these guys think it’s a joke.”

Watch above via CNN.

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