Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama
Via SLDN:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), a national, legal services and policy organization dedicated to ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), today launched “Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama,†a new media campaign to underscore the urgent need for congressional action and presidential leadership at this critical point in the fight to repeal DADT. Every weekday morning as we approach the markup of the Defense Authorization bill in the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, SLDN and a coalition of voices supporting repeal, will share an open letter to the President from a person impacted by this discriminatory law. We are urging the President to include repeal in the Administration’s defense budget recommendations, but also to voice his support as we work to muster the 15 critical votes needed on the Senate Armed Services Committee to include repeal.
“This is a critical hour as we’re very close to reaching the 15 votes needed to include repeal to the Defense Authorization bill,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. “We are just two or three votes away and we urge the President to engage now and help us line up key votes still needed to get DADT repealed this year. By people sharing their personal stories on how this terrible law has impacted them, we can send a powerful message to the President and our own community as we build momentum going into this crucial vote.”
The campaign began yesterday, with its first letter by someone you probably have heard of: United States Air Force Major Mike Almy, who has appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show.
April 26, 2010
President Barack H. Obama
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
If you end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell†(DADT), I’d re-enlist the day you sign repeal into law.
For thirteen years, I served in the United States Air Force where I attained the rank of major before I was discharged under DADT.
As the Senate Armed Services Committee considers including repeal in the Defense Authorization bill, we’re very close — just two or three votes — to passing repeal in committee. I ask for you to voice your support to put us over the top.
I come from a family with a rich legacy of military service. My father is a West Point graduate who taught chemistry at the Air Force Academy, flew helicopters in Vietnam, and ultimately retired as a senior officer from the Air Force. One of my uncles retired as a Master Gunnery Sergeant from the Marine Corps, with service in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Another uncle served in the Army in Korea.
Growing up, I didn’t really know what civilians did, I just knew I would follow in my father’s footsteps and become a military officer.
I joined Air Force ROTC in 1988 and was awarded a scholarship. I earned my jump wings in 1991. In 1992, I graduated from ROTC in the top 10% of all graduates nationwide. In 1993, I went on active duty, just as DADT was becoming a law.
Stationed in Oklahoma, I was named officer of the year for my unit of nearly 1,000 people. Later, I was one of six officers selected from the entire Air force to attend Professional Military Education at Quantico, Virginia.
During my career, I deployed to the Middle East four times. In my last deployment, I led a team of nearly 200 men and women to operate and maintain the systems used to control the air space over Iraq. We came under daily mortar attacks, one of which struck one of my Airmen and also caused significant damage to our equipment. Towards the end of this deployment to Iraq, I was named one of the top officers in my career field for the entire Air Force.
In the stress of a war zone, the Air Force authorized us to use our work email accounts for “personal or morale purposes†because private email accounts were blocked for security.
Shortly after I left Iraq — during a routine search of my computer files — someone found that my “morale†was supported by the person I loved — a man.
The email — our modern day letter home — was forwarded to my commander.
I was relieved of my duties, my security clearance was suspended and part of my pay was terminated.
In my discharge proceeding, several of my former troops wrote character reference letters for me, including one of my squadron commanders. Their letters expressed their respect for me as an officer, their hope to have me back on the job and their shock at how the Air Force was treating me.
Approximately a year after I was relieved of my duties, my Wing Commander recommended I be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, even though the Air Force was actively pursuing my discharge.
But instead, after 16 months, I was given a police escort off the base as if I were a common criminal or a threat to national security. The severance pay I received was half of what it would have been had I been separated for any other reason.
Despite this treatment, my greatest desire is still to return to active duty as an officer and leader in the United States Air Force, protecting the freedoms of a nation that I love; freedoms that I myself was not allowed to enjoy while serving in the military.
Mr. President, I want to serve. Please fulfill your promise to repeal DADT and give me that chance.
Thank you,
Major Mike Almy
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The White House is now linking comments made by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to what it claims is “dangerous” rhetoric that motivated the shooter who killed conservative commentator and activist Charlie Kirk, despite there being no definitive proof yet of the gunman’s motivations.
According to the Associated Press, the remarks that got Kimmel suspended, amid pressure from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, included:
“The MAGA Gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
The AP also reported that “Kimmel said that Trump’s response ‘is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?'”
READ MORE: ‘Insanely Broad’: Bill Would Authorize an ‘Open-Ended’ Trump Narco-Terror War
On Friday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told Newsmax, “I think you’re seeing just a general public response to people like Jimmy Kimmel, who tragically is spewing this dangerous rhetoric, all people who spew this dangerous rhetoric, who ultimately drove this deranged killer to take Charlie’s life.”
“I think it’s a reflection of where the public is right now, having this revival of standing for your belief, standing for our First Amendment rights and and the importance of civil dialogue and the right to speak your mind in this country.”
Kelly also said: “Charlie’s tragic death, also ignited, I think, a spark for young people, for all people in this country who are passionate about free speech, who are passionate about civil dialogue, and also faith. Charlie, of course, was a very outspoken proponent of standing in your faith.”
“It’s no question that the person who, the coward that shot and killed Charlie Kirk, was evil, was tragically driven by a lot of this violent, hateful rhetoric coming from the left,” she added.
READ MORE: ‘Massive Shift’: FCC Chair Says Local TV Will ‘Decide What the American People Think’
Critics blasted Kelly’s remarks.
“The Deputy Press Secretary’s remarks are dripping with hypocrisy,” wrote The Steady State, a group of more than 300 former national security officials. “On one hand, she invokes the First Amendment and the importance of civil dialogue. On the other, she scapegoats Jimmy Kimmel’s comedy as ‘dangerous rhetoric’ that somehow caused a murder? This is the antithesis of free speech.”
“The First Amendment doesn’t exist to protect speech the government likes — it exists precisely to protect speech that offends, critiques, or challenges those in power,” the group added. “By blaming a critic’s words for violence, while celebrating an ally’s words as virtuous, the administration is not defending free speech at all. It’s weaponizing it.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly says “you’re seeing just a general public response to people like Jimmy Kimmel who tragically is spewing this dangerous rhetoric, all people who spew this dangerous rhetoric who ultimately drove this deranged killer to take Charlie’s… pic.twitter.com/MoMgPMn1ju
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 19, 2025
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Draft legislation is reportedly circulating at the White House and on Capitol Hill that would codify into law actions similar to those that President Donald Trump has already taken against what his administration claims were narco-terrorists aboard drug-smuggling boats bound for the United States. The measure would grant the Commander in Chief broad authority to wage war against any entity — including foreign governments — suspected of ties to “narco-terrorism.”
The New York Times reports the legislation “would hand President Trump sweeping power to wage war against drug cartels he deems to be ‘terrorists,’ as well as against any nation he says has harbored or aided them, according to people familiar with the matter.”
The legislation has set off alarm bells inside some parts of the White House and Congress.
Some legal experts have deemed Trump’s use of the military to attack two vessels illegal, but the administration says the U.S. Constitution allows the President to take such actions.
READ MORE: ‘Massive Shift’: FCC Chair Says Local TV Will ‘Decide What the American People Think’
“Critics have also said that Mr. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have given illegal orders, causing Special Operations troops to target civilians — even if they are suspected of crimes — in apparent violation of laws against murder.”
The bill would “raise the question of whether Congress was effectively giving Mr. Trump the authority to wage a regime-change war in Venezuela.”
Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith, a former Bush DOJ official, told the Times the legislation is “insanely broad.”
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“This is an open-ended war authorization against an untold number of countries, organizations and persons that the president could deem within its scope,” Professor Goldsmith said. He also noted it could violate international law.
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the “White House has depicted [drug] smugglers as terrorists similar to members of al Qaeda and Islamic State who should be neutralized by military force.”
“Trump, who campaigned on avoiding foreign wars, is framing the campaign as homeland defense rather than another open-ended overseas conflict,” the paper reported.
Also this week, President Trump announced that he is designating Antifa a “major terrorist organization.”
Some experts say he lacks the authority to do so and will struggle to enforce such a move—while others warn it could give him sweeping license to target groups or individuals he disfavors.
READ MORE: ‘Corrupt Abuse of Power’: Dems Rip FCC Chair Over Kimmel Suspension
Image via Reuters
Explaining the “massive shift” he intends to impose on the focus of the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Brendan Carr announced that he will take America back to the era when local television stations shaped what the American people “think.”
“So again,” Carr told Fox News on Thursday, “we’re going back to that era when local TV stations, judging the public interest, get to decide what the American people think.”
“And again, we’re constraining the power through those actions of Disney, of Comcast. And I think the American public can be much better off. But, yeah, I don’t think this is the last shoe to drop,” he said, appearing to refer to the suspension of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel.
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“This is a massive shift that’s taking place in the media ecosystem, and I think the consequences are going to continue to flow,” he declared.
On Thursday, speaking aboard Air Force One, President Donald Trump wrongly suggested that broadcast networks, licensed by the FCC, are “not allowed” to criticize him.
“When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — if you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative one in years, or something — when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said.
Carr is one of the authors of The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. President Donald Trump praised Carr as “a warrior for Free Speech,” CBS News reported last year.
There are few “local” television stations left in the U.S., in the sense that nearly all are owned by several major broadcast conglomerates, including Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Gray Television, Tegna, Hearst, and Scripps.
Carr: We’re going to back to that era where local TV stations, judging the public interest, get to decide what the American people think…
I don’t think this is the last shoe to drop… the consequences will continue to flow. pic.twitter.com/UFErQ9ealK
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 18, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Corrupt Abuse of Power’: Dems Rip FCC Chair Over Kimmel Suspension
Image via Reuters
‘Corrupt Abuse of Power’: Dems Rip FCC Chair Over Kimmel Suspension
‘All They Do Is Hit Trump’: President Says Networks ‘Not Allowed to Do That’
‘Massive Shift’: FCC Chair Says Local TV Will ‘Decide What the American People Think’
Trump Labels Flag Burning, Organized Protests ‘Incitement to Riot’
‘Insanely Broad’: Bill Would Authorize an ‘Open-Ended’ Trump Narco-Terror War
White House Links Kimmel’s Comments to ‘Dangerous Rhetoric’ It Says ‘Drove’ Kirk’s Killer
‘Insanely Broad’: Bill Would Authorize an ‘Open-Ended’ Trump Narco-Terror War
‘Massive Shift’: FCC Chair Says Local TV Will ‘Decide What the American People Think’
Trump Labels Flag Burning, Organized Protests ‘Incitement to Riot’
‘All They Do Is Hit Trump’: President Says Networks ‘Not Allowed to Do That’
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