In
this Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017, frame
from video, Myeshia Johnson cries
over the casket of her husband, Sgt.
La David Johnson, who was killed in
an ambush in Niger, upon his body's
arrival in Miami. President Donald
Trump told the widow that her
husband "knew what he signed up
for," according to Rep. Frederica
Wilson, who said she heard part of
the conversation on speakerphone. In
a Wednesday morning tweet, Trump
said Wilson's description of the
call was "fabricated." (WPLG via AP)
Donald
Trump,
right,
sitting
next to
Sen.
Claire
McCaskill,
D-Mo.,
left,
speaks
during a
meeting
with
members
of the
Senate
Finance
Committee
and
members
of the
President's
economic
team in
the
Cabinet
Room of
the
White
House in
Washington,
Wednesday,
Oct. 18,
2017.
(Photo:
Susan
Walsh,
AP)
Trump
rejects
claims
he was
disrespectful
to
grieving
family
By
JONATHAN
LEMIRE
and
JENNIFER
KAY
apnews.com
4
mins
read
MIAMI -
President
Donald
Trump
emphatically
rejected
claims
Wednesday
that he
was
disrespectful
to the
grieving
family
of a
slain
soldier,
as the
firestorm
he
ignited
over his
assertions
of
empathy
for
American
service
members
spread
into a
third
contentious
day. “I
have
proof,”
he
insisted.
The
controversy
over how
Trump
has
conducted
one of
the most
sacred
of
presidential
tasks
generated
new
turmoil
in the
White
House.
After
one
slain
soldier’s
father
accused
the
president
of going
back on
a
promise
to send
a check
for
$25,000,
the
White
House
said the
money
had been
sent.
Chief of
staff
John
Kelly, a
retired
Marine
general
whose
son was
killed
in
Afghanistan,
was left
angry
and
frustrated
at the
way the
issue
has
become
politicized.
The
dispute
was
fresh
evidence
of
Trump’s
willingness
to
attack
any
critic
and do
battle
over the
most
sensitive
of
matters
— and
critics’
readiness
to find
fault
with his
words.
The
aunt of
an Army
sergeant
killed
in
Niger,
who
raised
the
soldier
as her
son,
said
Wednesday
that
Trump
had
shown
“disrespect”
to the
soldier’s
loved
ones as
he
telephoned
them to
extend
condolences
as they
drove to
the
Miami
airport
to
receive
his
body.
Sgt. La
David
Johnson
was one
of four
American
soldiers
killed
nearly
two
weeks
ago;
Trump
made a
telephone
call to
the
families
on
Tuesday.
President
Donald
Trump
strongly
disputed
a
Florida
congresswoman’s
account
that the
commander
in chief
told the
widow of
a
soldier
killed
in an
ambush
in Niger
that her
husband
“knew
what he
signed
up for.”
(Oct.
18)
Rep.
Frederica
Wilson,
a
Florida
Democrat
who was
in the
car with
Johnson’s
family,
said in
an
interview
that
Trump
had told
the
widow
that
“you
know
that
this
could
happen
when you
signed
up for
it ...
but it
still
hurts.”
He also
referred
to
Johnson
as “your
guy,”
Wilson
said,
which
the
congresswoman
found
insensitive.
Cowanda
Jones-Johnson,
who
raised
the
soldier
from age
5 after
his
mother
died,
told The
Associated
Press on
Wednesday
that the
Democratic
congresswoman’s
account
was
correct.
“Yes
the
statement
is
true,”
she
said. “I
was in
the car
and I
heard
the full
conversation.
At the
airport,
widow
Myeshia
Johnson
leaned
in grief
across
the
flag-draped
coffin
after a
military
guard
received
it.
“She
was
crying
for the
whole
time,”
Wilson
said.
“And the
worst
part of
it: When
he hung
up you
know
what she
turned
to me
and
said?
She said
he
didn’t
even
remember
his
name.”
Trump
started
the
storm
this
week
when he
claimed
that he
alone of
U.S.
presidents
had
called
the
families
of all
slain
soldiers.
AP
found
relatives
of four
soldiers
who died
overseas
during
Trump’s
presidency
who said
they
never
received
calls
from
him.
Relatives
of three
also
said
they did
not get
letters.
Obama
and
George
W. Bush
—
saddled
with far
more
combat
casualties
than the
roughly
two
dozen so
far
under
Trump —
did not
call all
those
soldiers’
families,
either,
but both
did take
steps to
write,
call or
meet
bereaved
military
families.
Chris
Baldridge,
the
father
of Army
Cpl.
Dillon
Baldridge
who was
killed
in June
in
Afghanistan,
told The
Washington
Post
that
when
Trump
called
him, he
offered
him
$25,000
and said
he would
direct
his
staff to
establish
an
online
fundraiser
for the
family.
But
Baldridge
said it
didn’t
happen.
The
White
House
said
Wednesday
that a
check
has been
sent.
And
Trump
spokeswoman
Lindsay
Walters
said it
was
“disgusting”
that the
news
media
were
casting
his
“generous
and
sincere
gesture”
in a
negative
light.
White
House
press
secretary
Sarah
Huckabee
Sanders
said
protocol
requires
that the
Pentagon
and
White
House
Military
Office
prepare
and
confirm
an
information
packet
before
the
president
contacts
grieving
family
members,
a
process
that can
take
weeks.
She said
Trump
has made
some
form of
contact
with
every
family
for whom
he has
received
the
appropriate
information.
Trump,
who
tangled
with a
Gold
Star
family
during
last
year’s
presidential
campaign,
fiercely
denied
Rep.
Wilson’s
version
of
events.
He
declared
on
Twitter:
“Democrat
Congresswoman
totally
fabricated
what I
said to
the wife
of a
soldier
who died
in
action
(and I
have
proof).
Sad!”
He
later
insisted
that he
“didn’t
say what
that
congresswoman
said,
didn’t
say it
at all.
She
knows
it.”
In
private,
he
bitterly
complained
to
associates
about
the
flare-up,
believing
the
press
was
eager to
paint
his
response
in a
negative
light,
according
to two
people
who
recently
spoke to
him but
were not
authorized
to
comment
publicly
about
private
conversations.
His
anger
was
echoed
from the
White
House
briefing
room
podium
by
Sanders,
who said
she was
“appalled”
by what
she
described
as
Wilson’s
efforts
to
politicize
the
tragedy.
“Just
because
the
president
said
‘your
guy’
doesn’t
mean he
doesn’t
know his
name,”
said
Sanders.
She
added
that
while no
recordings
of the
conversation
existed,
several
senior
officials,
including
Kelly,
witnessed
the call
and
described
Trump’s
manner
as
“respectful”
and
“very
sympathetic.”
Wilson
did not
back
down
from her
account.
Like
presidents
before
him,
Trump
has made
personal
contact
with
some
families
of the
fallen
but not
all.
What’s
different
is that
Trump,
alone
among
them,
has
suggested
he’s
done a
better
job of
honoring
the war
dead and
their
families.
He said
Tuesday:
“I think
I’ve
called
every
family
of
someone
who’s
died”
while
suggesting
past
presidents
had not.
Trump’s
delay in
publicly
discussing
the
lives
lost in
Niger
does not
appear
to be
unusual,
judging
from
past
examples,
but his
comments
are. He
went so
far
Tuesday
as to
cite the
death of
Kelly’s
son to
question
whether
Obama
had
properly
honored
the war
dead.
Kelly
was a
Marine
general
under
Obama
when his
Marine
son
Robert
died in
2010.
“You
could
ask
General
Kelly,
did he
get a
call
from
Obama?”
Trump
said on
Fox News
radio.
Sanders
said
Obama
did not
call
Kelly
but it
was not
clear if
some
other
form of
contact
was
made.
She
added
that
Kelly
was
“disgusted”
the
condolence
calls
had been
politicized
but said
she was
not
certain
if the
chief of
staff
knew
Trump
was
going to
talk
about
his son
publicly.
Two
White
House
officials
said
Kelly
was also
frustrated
that the
controversy
had
distracted
from a
significant
military
win over
the
Islamic
State in
Raqqa,
Syria.
Former
Defense
Secretary
Chuck
Hagel,
who led
the
Pentagon
for a
portion
of the
time
Kelly
served
as
commander
of U.S.
Southern
Command,
was
bitterly
critical
of
Trump’s
comments.
“If
there is
one
sacred
ground
in
politics
it
should
be the
ultimate
sacrifices
made by
our
military,”
Hagel
wrote in
an email
to the
AP. “To
use
General
Kelly
and his
family
in this
disgusting
political
way is
sickening
and
beneath
every
shred of
decency
of
presidential
leadership.
Beyond
the
dignity
of the
office.”
Johnson
was one
of four
soldiers
killed
in an
ambush
by
dozens
of
Islamic
extremists
during a
joint
patrol
by
American
and
Niger
forces,
U.S.
military
officials
say.
___
Lemire
reported
from New
York.
Associated
Press
writers
Curt
Anderson
and Josh
Replogle
in Miami
and
Robert
Burns in
Washington
contributed
to this
report.