Condolence call dispute turns ugly
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s condolence call to the widow of a slain soldier exploded into an acrid row on Wednesday, with the man’s mother accusing the president of disrespecting her family, and Trump complaining that his words had been cynically twisted for political purposes.
The president had told the widow of Army Sgt. La David T. Johnson, one of four Americans killed in an Oct. 4 ambush in Niger, that her husband “knew what he signed up for,” and he referred to the soldier only as “your guy,” according to Johnson’s mother and a Democratic congresswoman, who both listened to the call.
Trump angrily disputed that account, insisting that he “had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife, who sounded like a lovely woman.” The White House accused the congresswoman, Frederica S. Wilson of Florida, who disclosed his comments, of politicizing a sacred ritual after Trump initially said she “fabricated” her account.
The furious back-and-forth turned what is, even at the best of times, one of the most emotionally wrenching contacts between the commander in chief and a citizen into an ugly spectacle. It hijacked the White House’s agenda for the week and recalled Trump’s history of feuding with military families and, in the case of Sen. John McCain, a war hero.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday of Trump, “He took the time to make a call to express his condolences, to thank the family for this individual’s service. I think it, frankly, is a disgrace of the media to try to portray an act of kindness like that and that gesture, and try to make it into something that it isn’t.”
Asked on Wednesday about Wilson’s account of the call between the president and the widow, La David Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, backed the congresswoman’s version. “Yes, he did state that comment,” Jones-Johnson said of Trump, corresponding via Facebook.
Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that he had proof that Wilson fabricated her account. The White House said later it has no recording of the call.