The widow of a US soldier killed in action has said that President Donald Trump’s clumsy condolence call, which she received as she travelled to see her husband’s body, “made me cry even worse”.
The call, in which Trump allegedly told Myeshia Johnson that her husband, Sgt La David Johnson, “knew what he signed up for”, was widely reported after Democratic congresswoman Federica Wilson - who was with the grieving widow at the time - condemned the President’s language.
Speaking publicly about the incident for the first time on Good Morning America, Myeshia Johnson today corroborated Wilson’s version of events as “100% correct”.
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“I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said it,” she said.
She added the previously unreported detail that the President had “stumbled” to remember Sgt. Johnson’s name, before reading it from a report in front of him, Time reports.
“If my husband is out here fighting for our country and he risked his life for our country, why can’t you remember his name?,” she said. “That’s what hurt me the most.”
Soon after the interview aired, Trump took to Twitter to contradict the widow’s account, saying their conversation had been “very respectful” and denying that he had forgotten Sgt. Johnson's name.
Last week, Trump denied telling Johnson her husband “knew what he signed up for”, calling Wilson’s account “totally fabricated”, although Sgt Johnson’s stepmother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, has also confirmed that the congresswoman’s account was accurate.
A Facebook post supposedly written by Johnson in which she denied Wilson’s version of events and condemned the congresswoman for using her husband as a “political platform” has been revealed as a fake.
Yesterday, Good Morning America journalist Michael Del Moro confirmed that Johnson had told him that the post being shared in some pro-Trump circles had been fabricated and did not come from her own Facebook account.
Sgt. Johnson, one of four US soldiers killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this month, was buried near his home in Florida on Saturday, The Guardian reports.
Donald Trump denies disrespecting dead soldier
19 October
Donald Trump has been accused of insensitivity towards the widow of a green beret killed in an ambush in Niger last month, after reportedly telling the woman her husband “knew what he was signing up for, but I guess it hurts anyway”.
Trump’s comments were made public by congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who was with the wife of Sgt La David Johnson when the President called to offer his condolences.
“To me, that is something that you can say in a conversation, but you shouldn't say that to a grieving widow. And everyone knows when you go to war, you could possibly not come back alive. But you don't remind a grieving widow of that,” Wilson said.
When reports of the conversation emerged, Trump took to Twitter to deny he had used those words.
“Trump said he has proof Wilson fabricated her claim, but neither he nor the White House immediately provided any evidence,” CNN reports.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later that the call had not been recorded but “that there were several people in the room who were on the call including the chief of staff”.
According to Anthony Zurcher, senior North America reporter for the BBC “the more this story drags on - and it will drag on - the more damage it could do to a president who wraps himself in the symbols of patriotism and the military, but is in danger of being viewed by the public as lacking empathy when it counts most.”
Donald Trump tells soldier’s widow he ‘knew what he signed up for’
18 October
US President Donald Trump has come under fire after a congresswoman told NBC she overheard the Commander-in-Chief tell the widow of a US soldier killed in Niger that he “must’ve known what he signed up for”.
Democratic lawmaker Frederica Wilson was in a car traveling with Sergeant La David T. Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson, and her family to meet Johnson’s casket at Miami International Airport when the President called the family yesterday. Wilson says she overheard the conversation because the call was answered on speakerphone.
“Basically he said, 'Well, I guess he knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurt,' " Wilson said in a CNN interview.
“That is something that you can say in a conversation, but you shouldn't say that to a grieving widow. Everyone knows when you go to war you could possibly not come back alive, but you don't remind a grieving widow of that. That is so insensitive. So insensitive.”
Johnson, 25, of Miami, was one of four soldiers killed in a 4 October ambush by militants in Niger while the US soldiers “were participating in a train-and-advise mission with local forces,” NBC says. Johnson was a driver for 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was a decorated soldier who had received several awards including the Global War on Terrorism Medal and the Army Good Conduct Medal.
Wilson said that Johnson’s widow, a mother of two small children and pregnant with a third, had also just been told her husband’s casket would have to be closed for his funeral and was “already having nightmares over how his body must look,” The Independent reported.
Wilson told ABC that Johnson couldn't say much to the President because she and her family were crying but Wilson said she wanted to take the phone and "curse him out".
In a statement, White House officials said that “the President's conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private.”
They added that the President called the families of all four service members who were killed.
After saying calls about fallen soldiers are the toughest he has to make, during a Monday Rose Garden press conference, Trump claimed that previous US presidents hadn’t contacted the families of fallen American soldiers who were killed in action.
“If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls, a lot of them didn’t make calls.”
Trump made the false claim about Obama after being asked why he hadn’t made a public statement about the four service members sooner, as he held a press conference about the ambush 12 days after it occurred. Officials say the White House didn’t receive detailed information about the ambush until 12 October and that the information wasn’t vetted until Monday.
Trump defended his claims about Obama in a radio interview by referencing former General John Kelly’s son, who died in Afghanistan in 2010.
White House officials say Obama did not call Kelly, but NBC reports that Kelly and his family were present at the breakfast for Gold Star families, a private event for families who have lost loved ones in the military, and were seated at first lady Michelle Obama’s table.
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