UPDATED: Yes, it’s because Trump has no respect for dead soldiers
The mother of an elite American soldier killed two weeks ago in Niger confirms Rep. Frederica Wilson’s story about Trump’s insensitive call to her son’s widow:
The mother of a soldier killed in an ambush in Africa said Wednesday that President Trump “did disrespect my son” with remarks in a condolence telephone call.
Sgt. La David T. Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told The Washington Post that she was present during the call from the White House on Tuesday to Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson. She also stood by an account of the call from Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) that Trump told Myeshia Johnson that her husband “must have known what he signed up for.”
For her part, Rep. Wilson is pushing back against Trump’s claim that she lied about what Trump said to Myeshia Johnson:
Rep Frederica Wilson called in to ABC’s The View to defend her remarks about Trump’s horrible call to the Johnson family. With no holds barred, Wilson called Trump “a liar” after he said he has proof against her allegations.
Rep. Wilson told the ladies of “The View” that she mentored Sgt. La David Johnson from when he was a child and she was very upset about his loss. throughout their conversation.
Whoopi Goldberg asked, “You say you were in the car. The new guy in the office says he has proof of what he says. Can you tell us what you heard?”
Rep. Wilson replied, “Well, I heard him say, well, ‘You know, this is what — I’m sure he knows that this is what he signed up for, but it still hurts.'”
She continued, “The saddest part is he kept referring to La David as ‘your guy.’ He never called his name. It was almost as if he forgot his name and that’s what hurt the mother so badly, the wife. She said, ‘He doesn’t even know his name.’“
Meanwhile, Trump still hasn’t called the widows of other American servicemen who were slain months ago:
Whitney Hunter — widow of U.S. Army paratrooper Sgt. Jonathan Hunter, who was killed by a car bomb in August — told CNN on Wednesday that Vice President Mike Pence met with her family and offered his condolences when Sgt. Johnson’s remains arrived on U.S. soil, but that a promised call from President Donald Trump never came.
“At the dignified transfer in Dover, I was extremely honored to have the vice president there,” Hunter said, remaining poised and polite throughout the interview. “He spent a great deal of time talking to me and it wasn’t an uncomfortable type of thing. He really was a genuine human being and he shared his condolences and talked to me like he knew me forever, so it meant a lot to me to have him there.”
In a meeting with her Army Casualty Officer, Hunter said, she was told to stay close to her phone for the next few days because Pres. Trump would be calling to express his condolences on behalf of the nation.
“I just never received the phone call,” she said, adding that her personal support network has buoyed her up, including a number of contacts from federal and military officials.
Worst of all: Trump blew off a message of condolence for teh four soldiers killed in Niger.
The Trump administration drafted a condolence statement after the death of four US soldiers in Niger, a new report has claimed – but the President never gave it.
Politico reports that National Security Council (NSC) staffers drafted a statement for Donald Trump the day after the soldiers were killed. But Mr Trump remained silent on the issue until 12 days later, when he was asked about it by a reporter.
The draft statement describes the President as “heartbroken” by the news.
“The heroic Americans who lost their lives yesterday did so defending our freedom and fighting violent extremism in Niger,” the draft reads, according to a copy obtained by Politico. “Our administration and our entire nation are deeply grateful for their sacrifice, for their service, and for their patriotism.”
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle pretty much summed up the nation’s feelings about the death of all four soldiers, especially Green Beret Sgt. La David Johnson:
As for the so-called “president”, it is abundantly clear that he has no respect for American soldiers who have been slain in the line of duty, and no empathy for their spouses, their children, their families.
It is long past time that Trump, a disgusting, incompetent stooge, be removed from office by the fastest legal means available.
9:00amEDT — 
This is a photo of Myeshia Johnson crying over the coffin of her husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, a Green Beret who had been working with an elite U.S. Army Special Forces unit when he was killed in action in northwestern Africa. She has two children and is pregnant with their third. Several reports state that his funeral will have to be a “closed casket” ceremony.
In recent days, the news media has asked justified questions about Donald Trump’s communication – or alleged lack thereof – with the spouses and families of members of the military who have been killed in action overseas, and his false claims about how President Obama handled them.
JOHN YANG: Consoling the families of the fallen has become the latest controversy to engulf President Trump.
To bolster his claim that he does more than his predecessors, Mr. Trump today invoked the dead son of his chief of staff, retired Marine general John Kelly.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: To the best of my knowledge, I think I have called every family of somebody that’s died. Now, as far as other representatives, I don’t know. I mean, you could ask General Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?
JOHN YANG: Kelly’s 29-year-old son, Robert, a Marine lieutenant, was killed in 2010 when he stepped on a land mine in Afghanistan, an episode Kelly rarely talks about publicly. Kelly and his wife did attend a 2011 Memorial Day breakfast President Obama hosted for Gold Star families.
President Trump ignited the furor when he was asked about his public silence on four Green Berets killed two weeks ago in Niger.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls. A lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it.
JOHN YANG: Reporters pressed him to back up the claim.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know. That’s what I was told. All I can do — all I can do is ask my generals.
JOHN YANG: The response from former Obama officials was swift and forceful.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted this photo and insisted: “Stop the damn lying. I went to Dover Air Force base with 44 and saw him comfort families,” a reference to one of Mr. Obama’s late-night trips to pay his respects to troops killed in Afghanistan.
Stop the damn lying – you’re the President. I went to Dover AFB with 44 and saw him comfort the families of both the fallen military & DEA. pic.twitter.com/HhE4KbTBkJ
— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) October 17, 2017
A few hours after the botched press event, and two weeks after Trump finally got around to calling the widow. Who knows why it took so long – incompetence, lack of respect for the elite soldiers he claims to love, perhaps Johnson’s ethnicity. The call was on speakerphone, and apparently unbeknownst to Trump, Myeshia Johnson’s congresswoman, Rep. Frederica Wilson, was in the car and listening.
… Trump spoke to his wife, Myeshia Johnson for about five minutes. U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Florida, said Trump told the distraught widow Johnson “knew what he was signing up for…but when it happens, it hurts anyway.”
“Yeah, he said that,” Wilson said. “So insensitive. He should have not have said that. He shouldn’t have said it.”
CNN’s Don Lemon spoke with Rep. Wilson last night.
WILSON: We were in the car together, in the limousine headed to meet the body at the airport, so I heard what he said because the phone was on speaker. …
This is a young, young woman, who has two children, who is six months pregnant with a third child. She has just lost her husband. She was just told that he cannot have an open casket funeral, which gives her all kinds of nightmares how his body must look, how his face must look. And this is what the president of the United States says to her? … There’s no reason for the president to be so insensitive, not only to the family of this soldier, but the impervious rhetoric — you know, it’s disrespectful to the family of every soldier that has paid the ultimate price for our freedom.
And our community is livid because this was our hero. We don’t have many heroes in our young men in Miami-Dade county. But he was a hero for us. And we don’t like what was said. …
I was going to curse [Trump] out. That was my reaction at that time. I was livid. But they would not give me the phone. …
This could turn out to be another Benghazi.
And don’t get this writer started on the fact that Trump’s handlers obviously failed to liaise with the family and arrange for the call to take place at home. She was minutes away from receiving the remains of her husband – in a car.
This morning, Rep. Wilson appeared on Morning Joe.
Minutes after the interview ended, an enraged Trump deigned to tweet:
Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2017
No, Mister Trump.
We do not believe you.
You lie with disturbing regularity — especially when someone dares to tear off your “I’m so presidential, I’m the most presidential president ever, believe me” mask.
You just doesn’t care about doing the job properly. And it’s clear that even if you did care, you are intellectually unequipped to do it.
Resign already.
