Gold Star Widow Myeshia Johnson Finally Breaks Her Silence

Everyone has been talking about the “controversial” phone call between President Trump and Gold Star widow Myeshia Johnson. Self-proclaimed rockstar Rep. Frederica Wilson says Trump uttered totally insensitive remarks. She claims Trump told the widow that her husband, Army Sgt. La David Johnson, “knew what he signed up for..but when it happens it hurts anyway.”

So…everyone has a problem with the way he phrased his condolences. That’s the big controversy. Chief of Staff John Kelly was so upset over Wilson blowing this up that he took to the podium and set the record straight.

He said Trump asked him how to handle this, and he gave him this advice:

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ps5ttDzWBaY”]

When I took this job and talked to President Trump about how to do it, my first recommendation was he not do it because it’s not the phone call that parents, family members are looking forward to. It’s nice to do, in my opinion, in any event.

 

He asked me about previous Presidents, and I said, I can tell you that President Obama, who was my Commander-in-Chief when I was on active duty, did not call my family. That was not a criticism. That was just to simply say, I don’t believe President Obama called. That’s not a negative thing. I don’t believe President Bush called in all cases. I don’t believe any President, particularly when the casualty rates are very, very high — that Presidents call. But I believe they all write.

 

So when I gave that explanation to our President three days ago, he elected to make phone calls in the cases of four young men who we lost in Niger at the earlier part of this month. But then he said, how do you make these calls? If you’re not in the family, if you’ve never worn the uniform, if you’ve never been in combat, you can’t even imagine how to make that call. I think he very bravely does make those calls.

He continued:

So he called four people the other day and expressed his condolences in the best way that he could. And he said to me, what do I say? I said to him, sir, there’s nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families.

 

Well, let me tell you what I told him. Let me tell you what my best friend, Joe Dunford, told me — because he was my casualty officer. He said, Kel, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were because we’re at war. And when he died, in the four cases we’re talking about, Niger, and my son’s case in Afghanistan — when he died, he was surrounded by the best men on this Earth: his friends.

 

That’s what the President tried to say to four families the other day. I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning, and brokenhearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing. A member of Congress who listened in on a phone call from the President of the United States to a young wife, and in his way tried to express that opinion — that he’s a brave man, a fallen hero, he knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted. There’s no reason to enlist; he enlisted. And he was where he wanted to be, exactly where he wanted to be, with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken.

 

That was the message. That was the message that was transmitted.

That’s the message. Trump was not trying to be insensitive. He was trying to convey what Kelly just described.

The left doesn’t care. Wilson is still trying to ride out her 15 minutes of fame.

Niger is @realDonaldTrump‘s Benghazi. He needs to own it.

— Rep Frederica Wilson (@RepWilson) October 22, 2017

Well, Myeshia Johnson finally broke her silence. My heart truly breaks for her. She’s just looking for answers. She wants to know what happened.

She said Wilson is telling the truth but also confirmed what Kelly said. Trump tried to convey those words– that Johnson knew the risks, but he’s a hero who died fighting for what he believed in. It’s clear she didn’t like the way Trump said it, but that’s the message he was trying to get across.

There’s no easy way to make that phone call.

Here’s the full interview with Myeshia Johnson, widow of fallen soldier Sgt. La David Johnson pic.twitter.com/1pbqEonlH0

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 23, 2017

Trump has tweeted a response. I know…

He says he did remember Army Sgt. La David Johnson’s name during the phone call.

I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2017