Dead soldier’s wife takes aim at Trump
A FALLEN soldier’s angry widow joined the stormy dispute with President Donald Trump yesterday over his response to her husband’s death, saying his failure to remember the soldier’s name in last week’s condolence call “made me cry.”
Mr Trump retorted the call was “very respectful” and her accusation about her husband’s name simply wasn’t true. Though Mr Trump refused to let the new round of complaints go unanswered, he steered clear of the insults he exchanged last week with a congresswoman who had overheard the sympathy call.
The president spoke in public at two events during the day – including his awarding of the military Medal of Honor to a Vietnam-era Army medic – and made no mention of the case of Sergeant La David Johnson, one of four soldiers killed on October 4 in a firefight with militants tied to the Islamic State group in Niger.
In addition to criticising Mr Trump, Myeshia Johnson, the sergeant’s widow, also complained that she had not been able to see her husband’s body. Mrs Johnson spoke for the first time in the dispute on ABC’s Good Morning America.
In the interview, she supported critical statements last week by Republican Senator Frederica Wilson, who had been in the car with the widow and other relatives when Mr Trump phoned.
“Yes, the president said that ‘he knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyway.’ And it made me cry because I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said he couldn’t remember my husband’s name,” Mrs Johnson said.