Trump denies insensitivity to GI’s widow

Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., stands by her account of a phone call in which President Donald Trump reportedly told Sgt. La David Johnson’s widow that the soldier “knew what he signed up for,” though Trump tweeted Wednesday that Wilson’s description of the remarks was “fabricated.”
Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., stands by her account of a phone call in which President Donald Trump reportedly told Sgt. La David Johnson’s widow that the soldier “knew what he signed up for,” though Trump tweeted Wednesday that Wilson’s description of the remarks was “fabricated.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a Florida congressman “fabricated” an account of the commander in chief telling the widow of a soldier killed in an ambush in Niger that her husband “knew what he signed up for.”

Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat, said she was in the car with Myeshia Johnson on Tuesday on the way to Miami International Airport to meet the body of Johnson’s husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, when Trump called. Wilson said she and others heard part of the conversation on speakerphone.

When asked by Miami station WPLG if she indeed heard Trump say that, she answered, “Yeah, he said that. To me, that is something that you can say in a conversation, but you shouldn’t say that to a grieving widow.”

She added: “That’s so insensitive.”

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But in a Wednesday morning tweet, Trump said Wilson’s description of the call was “fabricated.”

“Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!” Trump wrote without specifying what proof he had.

Wilson stood by her account, saying Wednesday on CNN that “the president evidently is lying, because what I said is true.” Wilson said she and others in the car with Myeshia Johnson heard Trump.

Escalating the criticism of the president, Wilson said, “He doesn’t even know how to sympathize with people. We’re grieving. This is a grieving community. … It’s disgraceful for him to even tweet about this. And as I say, this gentleman has a brain disorder and he needs to be checked out.”

La David Johnson was among four servicemen killed in the African nation of Niger earlier this month. They died when militants thought to be affiliated with the Islamic State group ambushed them while they were patrolling in unarmored trucks with Nigerien troops.

Wilson said she did not hear the entire conversation, and Myeshia Johnson told her that she couldn’t remember everything that was said when asked it about it later.

“When she hung up the phone she looked at me and said, ‘He didn’t even know his name.’ Now that’s the worst part,” Wilson told CNN.

Trump has been criticized for not reaching out right away to relatives of the four killed in Niger. On Monday, Trump said he’d written letters that had not yet been mailed. His aides said they had been awaiting information before proceeding.

Also Wednesday, military father Chris Baldridge told The Washington Post that Trump, in a phone call after his son was killed in Afghanistan, offered him $25,000 and said he would direct his staff to establish an online fund-raiser for the family, but neither happened.

Trump called the elder Baldridge at his home in Zebulon, N.C., a few weeks after Army Cpl. Dillon Baldridge, 22, and two fellow soldiers were gunned down by an Afghan police officer on June 10.

The phone conversation lasted about 15 minutes, Chris Baldridge said, and centered for a time on the father’s struggle with the manner in which his son was killed.

“I said, ‘Me and my wife would rather our son died in trench warfare,’” Baldridge said. “I feel like he got murdered over there.”

The Post contacted the White House about Baldridge’s account on Wednesday morning. Officials declined to discuss the events in detail.

But in a statement Wednesday afternoon, White House spokesman Lindsay Walters said, “The check has been sent. It’s disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately by the president, and using it to advance the media’s biased agenda.”

Trump said this week that he has “called every family of somebody that’s died, and it’s the hardest call to make.” At least 20 Americans have been killed in action since he became commander in chief in January. The Post interviewed the families of 13 and found that his interactions with them vary. About half had received phone calls, they said. The others said they had not heard from the president.

In his call with Trump, Baldridge, a construction worker, expressed frustration with the military’s survivor benefits program. Because his ex-wife was listed as their son’s beneficiary, she was expected to receive the Pentagon’s $100,000 death benefit — even though “I can barely rub two nickels together,” he told Trump.

The president’s response shocked him, he said.

“He said, ‘I’m going to write you a check out of my personal account for $25,000,’ and I was just floored,” Baldridge said. “I could not believe he was saying that, and I wish I had it recorded because the man did say this. He said, ‘No other president has ever done something like this,’ but he said, ‘I’m going to do it.’”

Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press and by Dan Lamothe, Lindsey Bever, Eli Rosenberg, Julie Tate, Anne Gear-an and Kristine Phillips of The Washington Post.

photo

U.S. Army Special Operations Command via AP

This photo provided by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command shows Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger.

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