10/18/2017
Sgt. La David T. Johnson was killed in Niger on October 4th. Representative Frederica Wilson was with the fallen soldiers family when they received a call from President Trump.
Wilson had said that the Johnson family was “astonished” by Trump’s remarks during the call, which Wilson said she heard via a speakerphone while riding in a limousine with the Johnson family. “She was crying the whole time, and when she hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, ‘He didn’t even remember his name.’ That’s the hurting part.”
Wilson went on to say 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.”
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.”
“I didn’t say what that congresswoman said; didn’t say it all. She knows it,” Trump said when asked about the exchange by a reporter. Trump later tweeted:
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
Still later, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the president did not record the call, nor did he have any proof to support his statement.
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