Claims diss of G.I. ‘fabricated’
calling Wilson a liar and later insisting that she should recant her claim.
“Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!” Trump tweeted.
But Wilson did not back down, and said Trump could not remember the slain sergeant’s name during the call.
“She was in tears,” Wilson said during an appearance on MSNBC. “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.”
Trump, during a brief meeting with the Senate Finance Committee, sat with his arms folded tightly across his chest as he denied Wilson’s account.
“Didn’t say what that congresswoman said. Didn’t say it at all. She knows it,” Trump said. “And I’d like her to make the statement again because I did not say what she said.”
“I had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife who sounded like a lovely woman,” Trump said. “Did not say what the congresswoman said, and most people aren’t too surprised to hear that.” Wilson shot back moments later. “I still stand by my account of the call b/t @realDonaldTrump and Myeshia Johnson. That is her name, Mr. Trump. Not ‘the woman’ or ‘the wife,’ ” she tweeted. The flareup started after Trump was asked at a press conference on Monday why he hadn’t mentioned the deaths of Johnson and three other soldiers in Niger earlier this month. A defensive Trump then offered that he’d be calling their families, and suggested his predecessors didn’t. “The traditional way, if you look at President Obama and other Presidents, most of them didn’t make calls,” Trump said. “A lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate.” He later suggested that he’d reached out to relatives of all of the 20-plus service members who’ve died since he took office — although at least a half-dozen of the families told The Washington Post they’ve yet to hear from him. One who did was Chris Baldridge, whose son Army Sgt. Dillon Baldridge, 22, was