President Trump Accused Of Making ‘Insensitive’ Remarks To The Widow Of A US Solider

This is getting ugly. Really, really ugly. It’s sad that it’s even the focus of the news cycle right now, because at the end of the day, a woman lost her husband. Kids lost their father. My heart breaks for them.

It all started after a Democratic congresswoman, Rep. Frederica Wilson, claimed that President Trump made insensitive remarks to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson. She claims Trump said that Johnson “knew what he signed up for..but when it happens it hurts anyway.”

Florida congresswoman says the President told the widow of a fallen soldier “he knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurts” pic.twitter.com/fB2PALhxiG

— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) October 18, 2017

“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 about what his body must look, what his face must look, and this is what the president of the United States says to her,” Wilson said on CNN.

Wilson told CNN that she was in the car with Johnson’s widow, Myeshia, to meet the body in Miami when Trump called her.

 

Johnson was one of four U.S. soldiers killed in an ambush in Niger nearly two weeks ago.

 

Wilson said Johnson’s widow was “very distraught” after the call. The couple had two young children together and Myeshia is six months pregnant with their third child.

Wilson claims that Trump “was almost like joking.”

“He said, ‘Well, I guess you knew’ — something to the effect that ‘he knew what he was getting into when he signed up, but I guess it hurts anyway.’ You know, just matter-of-factly, that this is what happens, anyone who is signing up for military duty is signing up to die. That’s the way we interpreted it. It was horrible. It was insensitive. It was absolutely crazy, unnecessary. I was livid,” Wilson said.

Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that she was in the car during the call from the White House and that “President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband.”

 

Jones-Johnson, speaking to The Post via Facebook Messenger, declined to elaborate.

 

But asked whether Wilson’s account of the conversation between Trump and the family was accurate, she replied: “Yes.”

President Trump has strongly denied Wilson’s claims.

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

But Wilson’s standing by it.

I stand my account of the call with @realDonaldTrump and was not the only one who heard and was dismayed by his insensitive remarks.

— Rep Frederica Wilson (@RepWilson) October 18, 2017

It’s so back and forth. Some say Wilson is taking Trump’s comments out of context. In fact, Wilson admitted that she didn’t hear the entire phone call.

“I don’t know what kind of proof he could be talking about. I’m not the only person that was in the car, and I have proof too,” Wilson told CNN. “This man is a sick man. He’s cold-hearted and he feels no pity or sympathy for anyone. This is a grieving widow, a grieving widow who is six months pregnant. This is a young woman. She’s only 24 years old. She weighs maybe 110 pounds. And she has two other kids, 2 years old and 6 years old. And when she actually hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, ‘He didn’t even know his name.’ Now, that’s the worst part.”

“I didn’t hear the whole phone call, but I did hear him say, ‘I’m sure he knew what he was signing up for, and — but it still hurts.’ And I asked them to let me speak with him. And the master sergeant said, ‘No, you can’t speak with him.’ But I said, ‘But I want to speak with him.’ Because I was livid when I heard that,” she added.

Rep. Frederica Wilson responds to Trump’s claim she “fabricated” what he said to soldier’s widow: He “is a sick man” https://t.co/v32PLMr0aW

— CNN (@CNN) October 18, 2017

This entire fight is icky. A woman lost her husband. Together, they have a 6-year-old daughter, a 2-year-old son, and a baby due in January. My heart breaks for this family.

h/t WaPo