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Trump says ‘get out and vote for Roy Moore’ at Pensacola rally

President Donald Trump doubled down on his support for embattled Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore at a Florida rally Friday night, telling supporters to “get out and vote for Roy Moore.”

Many had speculated that the rally in Pensacola, which is near the Alabama border and feeds television markets in the state, was a backdoor way for the president to give Moore’s campaign a boost without actually setting foot in the state.

Moore, who is 70, has been dogged by multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including accusations that he molested two teenage girls and pursued romantic relationships with several others while in his 30s. He has denied the allegations.

Trump did not mention Moore for the first 40 minutes of his address, which lasted approximately 80 minutes. Finally, appearing to acknowledge a Moore supporter in front of the stage, the president asked how many members of the crowd were from Alabama

“We cannot afford … to lose a seat in the very, very close United States Senate,” Trump said. “We need somebody in that Senate seat who will vote for our ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda … So get out and vote for Roy Moore. Do it. Do it.”

Trump reiterated past criticisms of Moore’s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones.

“We can’t afford to have a liberal Democrat who is completely controlled by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,” the president said. “His name is Jones and he’s their total puppet and everybody knows it.”

The president also referenced one of Moore’s accusers, Beverly Young Nelson, who admitted Friday that she had written part of an inscription in her yearbook that she originally attributed to Moore in its entirety.

ROY MOORE ACCUSER ADMITS SHE WROTE PART OF YEARBOOK INSCRIPTION ATTRIBUTED TO HIM

“So did you see what happened today?” Trump asked. “You know, the yearbook? Did you see that? There was a little mistake made, She started writing things in the yearbook.”

Trump then took a shot at Nelson’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, saying, “Anytime you see her, you know something’s gone wrong.”

White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters onboard Air Force One that the president and White House have made clear they find the allegations “troubling and concerning” and believe they “should be taken seriously.” But he said Moore has maintained his innocence, and that should be taken into account as well.

“Ultimately his endorsement is about the issues,” said Shah. “He doesn’t want to see Alabama elect a Nancy Pelosi/Chuck Schumer puppet who’s going to be wrong on the issues and not support the agenda,” he said, referring to top congressional Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

Top Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, had called on Moore to step aside after the allegations were made public.

During the rally, Trump also crowed about stock market gains and other upbeat economic indicators. He said he was confident he’d win re-election in 2020, despite his dismal approval rating.

“I think it’s going to be very hard for somebody to beat us in a few years,” Trump said, pointing to the impact on 401(k) investments. “All you have to say is: With us it goes up, with them it goes down. And that’s the end of the election, right?”

But the president also touched on some darker themes, telling the audience, “It’s being proven we have a rigged system.”

“This is a sick system from the inside,” Trump said. “And, you know, there is no country like our country but we have a lot of sickness in some of our institutions.”

Trump also took his now-customary shots at the news media, referring to suspended ABC News correspondent Brian Ross as a “fraudster” and mocking CNN for an incorrect report earlier in the day on his campaign’s contacts with Wikileaks.

CNN BOTCHES DATES, INACCURATELY REPORTS TRUMP CAMPAIGN HAD WIKILEAKS SNEAK PEAK

“They apologized! Thank you CNN!” Trump cried in mock gratitude. “Thank you so much! You should have been apologizing for the last two years.”

The crowd at the Pensacola Bay Center included some Alabama voters who traveled across the border for the rally.

“These are lies, just malicious lies,” said John Maddalena, head of the south Alabama chapter of “Bikers for Trump.” Maddalena and his wife, Alisha, rode to the Trump rally from their home near Montgomery, Ala.

Alisha described herself as a “strong woman” who still doesn’t believe Moore’s accusers.

“You let him sit there and pass judgment on people” as a jurist “for 40 years and don’t say anything?” she asked. “You wait until he’s running for the Senate to come up with this? That makes you suspicious.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ex-Fox News anchor says Trump once tried to kiss her

Former Fox News anchor Juliet Huddy claims President Trump once made a pass at her in an elevator at Trump Tower, then commented on “hitting on her” during her morning show.

Huddy, now host of a radio program on WABC Radio, revealed during an appearance on Mornin’!!! w/ Bill Schulz that Trump leaned in to kiss her after taking her out to lunch. Huddy claimed the incident took place in 2005-06, around the time Trump married Melania Trump.

“He said goodbye to me in an elevator while his security guy was there. Rather than kiss me on the cheek he leaned in to kiss me on the lips,” she recalled. “I wasn’t offended, I was kind of like, ‘Oh my God.'”

Huddy said she didn’t feel “threatened,” but called it a “weird moment. He never tried anything after that, and I was never alone with him.”

13 PHOTOS

Women who have accused Donald Trump of inappropriate sexual behavior

SEE GALLERY

Years later, Trump visited Huddy on her Fox News morning show and made light of his advances, telling the studio audience, “I tried hitting on her, but she blew me off.”

“At the time I was not offended by it. I thought he was a single man and leaned in for a kiss,” Huddy said. “Now I have matured I think I would say, ‘Whoa, no,’ but at the time I was younger and I was a little shocked. I thought maybe he didn’t mean to do it, but I was kind of making excuses.”

Trump’s infamous “grab them by the pussy” comments to Billy Bush, which were caught on a live mic before a segment on Access Hollywood, occurred during the same years that Huddy is accusing Trump of assault. Trump has since called the validity of the remarks into question, but on Sunday, Bush penned an op-ed in The New York Timesstating, “Of course he said it.”

More than a dozen women have since accused the president of sexual harassment or assault.

Huddy left Fox News after receiving a settlement from the network following a sexual misconduct complaint filed against host Bill O’Reilly. In October, Huddy’s brother John, a Jerusalem-based correspondent for Fox News, was subsequently fired for his alleged involvement in a “physical altercation.”

Trump urges Alabama voters to back Roy Moore

Roy Moore slammed America, praising Putin

The Bubble: Time for a #TrumpToo movement, liberals say

Each week, USA TODAY’s OnPolitics blog takes a look at how media from the left and the right reacted to a political news story, giving liberals and conservatives a peek into the other’s media bubble.

This week, conservative and liberal media reacted to the resignations of two congressional Democrats over sexual harassment allegations: Minnesota Sen. Al Franken and Michigan Rep. John Conyers.

Many on the left applauded Senate Democrats for calling on Franken to step down, saying it gives them the moral high ground over the Republicans who have stood by men accused of sexual misconduct, like President Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. Pundits on the right, meanwhile, said Democrats called on Franken to step down because of politics, not morals.

If Democrats are “going to support women in our policies and rhetoric, we also have to support them with our actions — and that includes standing against sexual assault and sexual harassment, regardless of whether the perpetrator is within our own party,” Sally Kohn said in a commentary for CNN. “This is moral leadership.”

“Paradoxically, Republicans in Alabama and across the country who continue to support Senate candidate Roy Moore claim to do so because of moral values,” she said.

This is not moral leadership; it is moral hypocrisy. It is treating principles as things you pick and choose at a cafeteria, depending on which party is offering you the menu. Real principles, and the principles behind true moral and ethical leadership, are consistently applied no matter what.

Opinion: With Al Franken resignation, Democrats seize the high ground. Over to you, GOP.

FROM THE RIGHT: FRANKEN DOESN’T ‘REALLY REGRET ANYTHING’

Franken never apologized nor admitted any wrongdoing in his resignation speech and instead “remained defiant,” which proves his stepping down was just a Democratic political maneuver, argued Siraj Hashmi in the Washington Examiner.

“In what should have been a contrite, self-reflecting apology speech, he felt the need to toss a political hand grenade over to Republicans for continuing to back President Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, despite them being accused of a mounting number of allegations of sexual misconduct,” Hashmi said.

Hashmi said Franken’s lack of contrition shows that the Democrats made him a “sacrificial lamb” to “seize the moral high ground.”

“This is just politics as usual,” Hashmi said, “and Franken really doesn’t regret anything he’s done.”

FROM THE LEFT: TIME FOR A ‘#TRUMPTOO MOMENT’

The Nation ‘s Joan Walsh was initially reluctant to call for Franken — whom she called an “excellent senator” and she had hoped would run for president — to resign. “But as the stream of allegations went on, it became obvious Franken couldn’t continue to be effective,” she said.

“Still, I would like to see Franken’s departure be not just another #MeToo moment but a long-delayed #TrumpToo moment,” Walsh said, suggesting the minority party should hold toothless hearings to get Trump’s accusers on the congressional record.

I think it would encourage demoralized progressives considerably if Democrats followed Franken’s departure with a strategy to bring Trump to public account for his serial abuse. And to shame House Speaker Paul Ryan for having the audacity to weigh in on now-retired Democratic representative John Conyers, while saying nothing about Farenthold. Democrats are doing the right thing, morally, but they really need to figure out the right thing, politically. This doesn’t end with Franken’s departure. It begins.

Opinion: Time Person of the Year cover: Where are Donald Trump’s accusers?

FROM THE RIGHT: IT’S ‘MORAL PREENING,’ NOT ACTUAL MORALS

“Democrats are feeling smugly morally superior right now,” wrote Erick Erickson for Fox News Opinion. “They should not.”

Erickson said Franken resigned only because “it is politically expedient for him to do so” and so that the media can “use him to assail the Republicans” after Roy Moore wins. (The Alabama Republican is sure to win, according to Erickson, because “everyone seems to have forgotten about the accusations of sexual misconduct against Roy Moore except the die-hard partisans.”)

“Do not kid yourself. If Al Franken was all that stood in the way of a Republican majority in the Senate, Democrats would be circling the wagons and attacking his accusers,” Erickson said. But, he also cautioned the Republicans against ignoring “the Moore situation.”

“Both sides have cried wolf and turned enough blind eyes that everyone seems to be willfully deaf and blind,” he said.

FROM THE LEFT: DEMOCRATS MAY REGRET DOING THE RIGHT THING

The Daily Beast ‘s Michael Tomasky said that “if the Democrats think that taking the high ground on this one is going to score them any points, my bet is they’re sadly mistaken,” Tomansky said.

Tomasky said the political “opportunism” was behind Franken’s resignation was obvious and that there was no way his Democratic colleagues would have called for him to step down if Minnesota had a Republican governor. But more importantly, Franken’s departure won’t help, “because rank-and-file Democrats take sexually inappropriate behavior a lot more seriously than rank-and-file Republicans do.”

Maybe it will impress some female swing voters in Alabama. But it seems more likely that the Republican way of handling these things is going to win. Deny, deny, deny. Lie, lie, lie. Pushback, pushback, pushback. Be so outrageous — the Republican National Committee officially supporting an accused child molester! — that people can barely wrap their heads around it. Sad to say, it wins.

I’m not saying the Democrats should reduce themselves to that level. As I said, Franken should go. But I’m not sure what the Democrats are getting out of it. They’re losing one of their best and smartest senators, somebody who would have been a quite plausible presidential contender in 2020; and failing that would have been a great and important lifetime senator

FROM THE RIGHT: ‘TRUMP’S FRANKENMOORE NIGHTMARE’

In the game of political chess, Franken’s resignation put the Republican Party and President Trump in check, opined The Wall Street Journal ‘s editorial board.

“It is not hard to see what is going on here,” the paper’s editorial board said. “The Democrats are creating a Frankenmoore nightmare for Donald Trump.”

“The Democrats are eliminating their stains, while the Republicans are endorsing theirs. You have to believe in magic to think this is going to end well for Republicans,” the editorial said, arguing that the only move now for Trump and the GOP is to “disown” Moore immediately.

More: Sen. Al Franken takes dig at Trump, Moore in resignation speech

Trump hails Jerusalem decision at WH Hanukkah party

Jessica Chia

Dec 8th 2017 5:32AM

President Trump lapped up the festivities at the White House Hanukkah celebration just one day after he bucked years of American foreign policy to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Trump entered The East Room to cheers and addressed the crowd saying he knew there were a lot of happy people in the room before declaring, “Jerusalem,” according to pool reports.

Trump, who shared the origins of Hanukkah, and allowed his grandchildren to light the two Menorahs in the room, credited the Jewish people for their faith and resilience.

Photos from the White House Hanukkah party:

20 PHOTOS

Donald and Melania Trump host Hanukkah reception at the White House

SEE GALLERY

Unlikely political group comes to Franken’s defense

Democratic Sen. Al Franken found some unlikely defenders — conservatives.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and a handful of conservative pundits criticized the process by which Franken was effectively forced out of the Senate.

Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota found some unlikely defenders after it became clear he would resign from his seat following a bevy of sexual-misconduct allegations — several prominent conservative pundits.

Most prominently among them was former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who said Franken was essentially taken out by a “lynch mob” after more than 30 Democratic senators called for his resignation on Wednesday following the latest accusation.

Gingrich, a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump, said on Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s show Wednesday that Democrats were tossing Franken aside without any “due process” so they could appear to be “pure.”

“What you saw today was a lynch mob,” he said. “Let’s not have due process. Let’s not ask anybody any questions. Let’s not have any chance to have a hearing. Let’s just lynch him because when we are done, we will be so pure.”

He said that what Franken, former “Saturday Night Live” cast member was accused of doing was “the kind of things people in the entertainment business do.”

34 PHOTOS

Al Franken through the years

SEE GALLERY

Ingraham cautioned viewers to be “wary” of joining such a “lynch mob.”

“Because tomorrow, it could be coming for your husband, your brother, your son, and yes, even your president,” she said.

Franken, first elected in 2008, announced his resignation on Thursday after several women accused him of groping or forcibly kissing them. In a Senate floor speech, Franken said he was “shocked” and “upset” by those allegations, claiming some were untrue while others he remembered “differently.”

The Minnesota senator said it was ironic that he was leaving the Senate while Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen women, occupies the White House. And he highlighted the accusations against Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, who is alleged to have pursued teenage girls when he was in his 30s. He recently regained financial backing from the Republican National Committee and has seen support from the White House.

On her program, Ingraham said Democrats “determined” it was worth ousting Franken so they could claim the moral high ground against Moore and Trump.

“They have now determined that it is worth sacrificing Franken, just like they did John Conyers — throw him overboard to save the political Titanic that is their party,” she said. “What does this do? It sets the precedent for the Democrats to try to drive Roy Moore from office, should he win the Alabama Senate race. And two, this is the next step in the quest to impeach President Trump. The left is brilliant.”

“What if this happened to you?”

Ingraham wasn’t the only Fox News host to cast doubt on whether Franken’s ouster was a positive.

On his Wednesday night program, host Tucker Carlson suggested that his viewers should be cautious of celebrating Franken’s then-presumed resignation too much.

Though he said “good riddance,” Carlson quickly shifted to asking his viewers, “What if this happened to you?”

“Imagine being accused by someone whose name you didn’t know of something that supposedly happened more than a decade ago,” he said. “How would you respond? How could you respond? What if you were innocent, by the way? And what if nobody cared?”

Gingrich doubled down on his comments Wednesday, tweeting that by forcing Franken out, Democrats were moving against the will of Minnesota voters.

In an email exchange with HuffPost, Gingrich said Franken’s ouster was the latest example of “the totalitarian left … imposing its latest passion.”

“There used to be movies about lynch mobs and the emotional energy that builds and the lone marshall or sheriff who insists on due process,” Gingrich said. “But of course the totalitarian left believes in imposing its latest passion whether on wedding cakes, nuns, its own members in Congress or conservatives on campuses. This is just another manifestation of the emotional passions which resemble medieval flagelante in their desire to atone for something even if it is only the latest fad.”

Others joined in after Franken’s Senate floor speech.

Radio host John Ziegler — a “Never Trump” conservative — tweeted that Franken was “innocent” and “railroaded” out of office.

“The saddest/truest part of Sen. Al Franken’s speech was him realizing too late (just as I have said) that to treat accusers with respect & issue an apology, in today’s messed up world, gets misconstrued as a confession of guilt,” he tweeted. “This was an innocent man railroaded by his decency.”

Ari Fleisher, who served as White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, said Franken “should not have resigned.”

“His fate should have been left 2the people of MN,” he tweeted. “Moore, who had sexual contact w a 14-yr old, should drop out. Conyers, who hit on his employees, should have resigned. Franken is a creep who acted inappropriately, but his facts are different.”

And prominent conservative columnist Byron York of the Washington Examiner called what happened to Franken “kangaroo court justice of the college campus coming to” the Senate. York noted the difference between Franken’s ouster and the expulsion of former Republican Sen. Bob Packwood, kicked out in 1995 after a years-long Senate Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

“There’s reason to be concerned about what comes next,” he tweeted.

Phone call summaries by Trump and Macron vary

Obama invokes Hitler in warning against complacency Geobeats

Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned against staying complacent in the face of rising nativism, citing the rise of Hitler as an example of what can happen if democracy is not defended, reports Crain’s Chicago Business.

“We have to tend to this garden of democracy or else things could fall apart quickly,” Obama told the audience at the Economic Club of Chicago. “That’s what happened in Germany in the 1930s, which despite the democracy of the Weimar Republic and centuries of high-level cultural and scientific achievements, Adolph Hitler rose to dominate.”

“Sixty million people died…So, you’ve got to pay attention. And vote,” he further noted.

Though Obama didn’t specifically mention anyone other than Hitler, the comments were largely interpreted as being directed towards President Trump.

The apparent change in the United States’ approach to foreign policy has not gone unnoticed.

Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s foreign minister, said on Tuesday that following the U.S. along its current path could diminish the West’s worldwide influence, according to Deutsche Welle.

“The U.S. no longer sees the world as a global community but as a fighting arena where everyone has to seek their own advantage,” Gabriel also commented. “Germany can no longer simply react to U.S. policy but must establish its own position…even after Trump leaves the White House, relations with the U.S. will never be the same.”

He saved 6 men at Pearl Harbor. Finally, 76 years later, he’s being honored

These men experienced the horror of the sinking of the battleship USS Arizona and lived to tell about it. “Witnesses to infamy: The survivors of the attack on the battleship USS Arizona,” an azcentral special documentary Pat Shannahan

PHOENIX — Anyone who heard the story of Joe George at Pearl Harbor knew at once this was the story of a hero: a young sailor who risked his life in the fiery Japanese ambush to rescue the last six survivors from the sinking USS Arizona.

Joe George should get a medal for what he did, everyone would say.

Strangers who heard the story said it. The men he saved said it.

But for more than seven decades, no one could make it happen.

The Navy commended George for his actions and noted them in his record. For a medal, the Navy wanted an eyewitness account of the incident, corroboration from a senior officer who was aboard the USS Vestal with George on Dec. 7, 1941. Neither could be found.

Joe George, early in his Navy years. George will posthumously receive the Bronze Star Medal for Valor on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, aboard the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor.

And there was a hitch in the story: George, a boatswain’s mate second class, disobeyed an order to cut the line between the Vestal, a maintenance ship, and the Arizona. He had spotted the six desperate men on the burning battleship and threw a line to them, ignoring the order to cast off.

The failure to follow orders seemed to stand in the way of George’s medal.

George died in 1996. A few years later, the son of one of the men George rescued took up the cause of the medal.

He called. He wrote letters. He enlisted other Pearl Harbor survivors. He tracked down George’s family and promised George’s widow he would fight to secure recognition for the man who had saved his dad’s life.

George’s daughter, Joe Ann Taylor, joined the campaign. They took it all the way to the White House.

USS Arizona survivor Donald Stratton waits for the start of the 75th annual remembrance of the attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 2016.

And they did it. On Thursday, a Navy admiral will present Taylor a Bronze Star Medal for Valor, recognizing George posthumously. The ceremony will take place aboard the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, yards from where the story began.

And though George has died, the story continues. His efforts saved six men that day. Now, improbably — 76 years later — of the five USS Arizona survivors still alive, two of them are men George saved.

When Taylor accepts her father’s medal, she won’t be alone. Donald Stratton, 95, and Lauren Bruner, 97, will be standing there with her.

“Whatever medal it is doesn’t matter,” she said. “It was a story that needed to be told. It was a huge part of history, for those men who were true heroes, and it was was my dad who helped them.”

How USS Arizona sailors were rescued

In 1966, Donald Stratton returned to Pearl Harbor for the first time since the attack. He hadn’t talked about it much until then, but after that visit, he revealed more of what happened, of his rescue from the Arizona.

Stratton and five other crewmen were trapped on a burning tower as the battleship buckled beneath the Japanese assault. They were burned badly and thought they would die. Until they saw the sailor on the Vestal.

Randy Stratton would listen to his dad describe the heat, the flames, the pain, the terror of climbing hand-over-hand from the Arizona to the Vestal, the elation of rescue. He wondered about the Vestal sailor and searched until he learned the identity. When he discovered the sailor was never given a medal, he undertook the cause.

He contacted then-representative Joel Hefley, who represented Stratton’s home state of Colorado.

“The first time I took it to Joel Hefley, he said, ‘This is going to be one of the easiest ones we’ve ever done,’ ” Randy Stratton said. “The Navy kicked it back.”

He approached other lawmakers in other states, went to the Navy repeatedly, was told over and over that the medal would be an easy sell. But it wasn’t.

The missing paperwork, the lack of corroborating accounts, the years that had passed, all worked against the sailor’s son. And that issue of an order disobeyed seemed insurmountable.

“I was keeping it alive, keeping it out front,” Randy Stratton said. By then he had reached out to George’s widow. “I promised Thelma George way back when, I told her I was going to get her husband a medal. I called her every December 7 from the 60th anniversary on. I told her Lauren and my dad are still here because of her husband.”

‘I’m that unknown sailor’

Taylor knew little about her dad’s experiences in World War II and didn’t hear the story of the Vestal for years. George told his daughter’s husband, Gary, more than he told her.

“He would start to cry when he talked about it,” she said. “We knew he was on the Vestal … but never did I have the opportunity to listen to what he did.”

George told the story start to finish in 1978 for an oral history program at North Texas State University (known now as the University of North Texas) in Denton, Texas. He recounted the incident with the six Arizona crewmen.

“I’m that unknown sailor,” he told the North Texas interviewer. “I’m the guy.”

A few years back, Taylor joined Randy Stratton in the campaign to secure a medal for her dad. She called senators, she called the Navy, she wrote letters, sent copies of documents. Nothing worked.

George told the story start to finish in 1978 for an oral history program at North Texas State University (known now as the University of North Texas) in Denton, Texas. He recounted the incident with the six Arizona crewmen.

“I’m that unknown sailor,” he told the North Texas interviewer. “I’m the guy.”

A few years back, Taylor joined Randy Stratton in the campaign to secure a medal for her dad. She called senators, she called the Navy, she wrote letters, sent copies of documents. Nothing worked.
The breakthrough came earlier this year. Taylor had been working with Sen. Tom Cotton in her home state of Arkansas. Randy Stratton was in touch with Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado. They brought in Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake.

In July, the surviving USS Arizona crew members were invited to the White House to meet with President Trump. Donald Stratton and Bruner made the trip, along with Ken Potts, 96, another of the five surviving crewmen from the Arizona. Taylor and Randy Stratton also were there as Trump spoke about George’s actions.
Pearl Harbor survivor Lauren Bruner attends the dual interment of fellow USS Arizona survivors John D. Anderson, boatswain’s mate 2nd class, and Clarendon R. Hetrick,seaman 1st class, at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as part of the 75th anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 2016
“Joe Ann, your father makes us all proud,” the president said. “Thank you for inspiring our nation by telling the story of your father.”

The group visited with lawmakers, representatives of the Navy and White House staff.

In September, Flake introduced a resolution honoring Joe George. The resolution passed unanimously.

In adopting the resolution, Flake said, “We have handed the Navy an opportunity to finally do right by Joe and finally recognize the unquestionable courage and heroism he demonstrated during the attack on Pearl Harbor.”

‘We’re running out of time’

On Veterans Day, Gardner, the Colorado senator, made the trip to Colorado Springs, where Donald Stratton lives with his wife, Velma. He listened to the stories again and a forceful appeal from Stratton to honor George.

“I couldn’t help but get emotional,” he said. “To imagine these individuals hanging on a lifeline Joe George had thrown to them.”
The family told Gardner they were going to Pearl Harbor in December.

“His son said he didn’t know if his dad would make it back again,” the senator said.

Gardner had already reached out to the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired Marine general, and made the case to honor George.

“I knew this had to be resolved by December 7,” Gardner said. “We’re running out of time.

“We are losing these heroes every day,” he said. “To be a part of a mission completed on this one, a gesture of American appreciation, is something I’ll never forget.”

A first-ever honor

Taylor got the call the Friday before Thanksgiving. Her father would receive the Bronze Star for Valor. She called the Strattons with the news.

Within a few days, they had arranged for a medal ceremony on the USS Arizona Memorial on Dec. 7, bringing the story full circle. It will be the first medal ever awarded on the memorial, which sits atop the Arizona wreckage.
Donald Stratton and Bruner will be there, along with Lou Conter, 96, another of the last five survivors. Potts and Lonnie Cook, 97, the other two survivors, were unable to make the trip to Hawaii.
George will be recognized during the Pearl Harbor Day commemoration service Thursday morning on shore. The families will gather on the USS Arizona memorial for a private ceremony with Rear Adm. Matthew Carter, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Stratton has told the story of Joe George as often as he has told his own. He grows emotional when he recounts the rescue and almost angry when he talks about the Navy’s failure to award the young sailor a medal.

“He should have the Navy Cross,” Stratton said in a 2014 interview with The Arizona Republic. “He saved six people’s lives. Joe saved six lives and he didn’t get crap. He refused to cut the line no matter what. As far he was concerned he was saving lives.”
Stratton’s son said the medal will represent an official recognition, but he and the others have achieved a goal almost as important.
“We always kept saying even if we don’t get the medal, we’ve got the attention we needed,” he said. “People know who Joe George is. He’s not the unknown sailor anymore.”

Over the past few months, as the Navy validated the story, they found George’s records. Among them were his logbook, where he was commended for saving the six men from the Arizona.

And something else. Or, rather, something that wasn’t there.

“There was nothing in the record that said he disobeyed commands,” Taylor said. “There was no record saying that.”