After the stunning silence from Donald Trump over the deaths of the four U.S. soldiers who were ambushed in Niger earlier this month, the so-called president finally called the families of the fallen soldiers. Trump called U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson’s grieving widow on Tuesday and said that “he knew what he signed up for … but when it happens, it hurts anyway,” according to U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Florida).
“Yeah, he said that,” Wilson said. “So insensitive. He should not have said that. He shouldn’t have said it.”
Trump spent about three to five minutes on the phone with Johnson’s pregnant widow, Myeshia Johnson. She is a mother to Johnson’s surviving 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. Ms. Johnson had Trump on speaker phone as Rep. Wilson was with her while she was on her way to meet her husband’s remains.
Wilson said Johnson’s family was “astonished” by Trump’s comment, according to NBC.
“I wanted to curse him out. I asked the family to give me the phone so that I could, but they wouldn’t,” Wilson added in the statement to NBC. “It was almost like saying, ‘You signed up to do this, and if you didn’t want to die, shouldn’t have signed up.’”
Watch:
.@RepWilson, who rode with Sgt. La David Johnson’s widow, said she heard part of call with President Trump: “He must’ve known what he signed up for.”pic.twitter.com/7q0nEMFQy1
— Kanisha Jackson (@Kanisha1Jackson) October 18, 2017
Wilson told The Washington Post that Johnson broke down in tears. “He made her cry,” she recalled.
“They (the family) were upset because they don’t know why he was separated from the rest of the soldiers,” Wilson said. “This could turn out to be another Benghazi, and I have asked for an investigation.”
“The president’s conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private,” a top advisor later said in response to the call with Mrs. Johnson.
It took Trump 12 days to respond to the ambush which left 4 soldiers dead and during that time, he took swipes at Puerto Rico, went golfing and lashed out at his ‘fake news’ critics on Twitter. Finally, when asked about the silence regarding the ambush, Trump took a jab at former presidents, including Barack Obama, saying that they never called families of fallen soldiers. That was a lie.
According to the Military Times, Johnson, 25, was the recipient of many awards and decorations, including the Army Achievement Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Army Parachutist Badge, the Army Air Assault Badge, the Driver and Mechanic Badge, and the Marksmanship Qualification Badge – Sharpshooter with Rifle.
Photo: GoFundMe donation page where over $217,000 has been raised so far.
