Trump Told a Soldier’s Widow Her Husband ‘Knew What He Signed Up For,’ His Mother Says

[Zippyjuan]

Trump Told a Soldier’s Widow Her Husband ‘Knew What He Signed Up For,’ His Mother Says

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/us/politics/trump-widow-johnson-call.html

WASHINGTON — The mother of a soldier killed in an ambush in Niger said Wednesday that President Trump disrespected her family during a call with the man’s widow by saying the soldier “knew what he signed up for.”

President Trump denied he said those words to Sgt. La David T. Johnson’s wife during a Tuesday phone call and escalated his dispute with Representative Frederica Wilson, Democrat of Florida, who first described the exchange on Tuesday.

Speaking before a meeting with members of the Senate Finance Committee, Mr. Trump said, “I had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife, who sounded like a wonderful woman.” He also asserted, “I didn’t say what that congresswoman said. Didn’t say it at all, she knows it.”

Yet when asked about Ms. Wilson’s account of the call on Wednesday, Mr. Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, backed the congresswoman’s version. “Yes, he did state that comment,” Ms. Jones-Johnson said of Mr. Trump, corresponding via Facebook.

Pressed twice by reporters about Ms. Wilson’s description, Mr. Trump dared her to make the allegations again. “Let her make her statement again and then you’ll find out,” the president said.

A video frame of Myeshia Johnson over the casket of her husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger, upon his body’s arrival in Miami on Tuesday. Credit WPLG, via Associated Press

Ms. Wilson recounted details of Mr. Trump’s call with Sergeant Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson. On Tuesday, Ms. Wilson was in the car with the widow, and said she overheard the phone call from the president, who was on speakerphone. Sergeant Johnson was killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this month that killed three other soldiers and injured two in the Army Special Forces Unit.

Ms. Wilson said that during the call, the president told Ms. Johnson “something to the fact that he knew what he was getting into when he signed up,” the congresswoman said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday.

“But that’s not the worst part,” Ms. Wilson said. “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.”

Mr. Trump’s comments were the latest in a series of remarks he made this week drawing attention to grieving families of fallen solders.

Mr. Trump has said very little about the Niger episode. When he was asked by a reporter about this on Monday, he responded by saying he had written letters to the soldiers’ families. Mr. Trump compared his actions to past presidents and said past presidents have not always contacted families of those killed in action.

 

[donnay]

Trump says Dem rep 'fabricated' account of call to soldier's widow, has 'proof'
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...foxnews/politics+(Internal+-+Politics+-+Text)

 

[dannno]

Does anybody actually believe this shit?

 

[donnay]

Does anybody actually believe this $#@!?

Zip does obviously.

 

[Jamesiv1]

if he hasn't yet learned he needs to document and record every single utterance, then he's not my hero any more.

but for now, he is still the D.J. Donald Trumpmaster D!

 

[Raginfridus]

I mean, it wouldn't be out of character for our elected leaders to forget the names of men they've sent to their graves. (Its a long list, too.) I'm sure they're usually coached very thoroughly five to ten minutes before the phone call, which makes him forgetting so soon curious.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

From some of his statements yes=terday it seems as if he is again in camapaign mode against Obama/Hillary team while trying to claim that he is a better commander in chief than Obama.
His statements are going to get major reactions from media and Dems probably. Trump also suggested Obama did not use to call families of soldiers who died under his command. If he hasn't already, he probably would soon compare his military poll numbers to those of Obama's.


October 17, 2017

Trump on Obama calling soldiers' families: "You can ask Gen. Kelly, did he get a call?"

President Trump did not back down from claims he made at the Rose Garden on Monday, in which he appeared to suggest that past presidents, particularly President Obama, did not call the families of soldiers killed in action.
"President Trump spoke to all four of the families of those who were killed in action in Niger," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday. "He offered condolences on behalf of a grateful nation and assured them their family's extraordinary sacrifice to the country will never be forgotten."

In another slap at Obama, Mr. Trump said, "Now, as far as other presidents, I don't know, I mean you can ask General Kelly, did he get a call from Obama? You could ask other people. I don't know what Obama's policy was. I write letters and I also call."
Mr. Trump was referring to Robert Kelly, son of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who was killed by an IED while serving as a second lieutenant in Afghanistan in 2010. It was Gen. Joseph Dunford, now the chairmain of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and among Kelly's closest friends, who appeared at his door in Washington D.C., early in the morning to inform him, according to the Washington Post, which also wrote that as soon as Kelly saw Dunford in his service uniform, he knew his son was dead.

A senior administration official says that Obama did not call Kelly after the death of his son.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-o...he-get-a-call/


Related

Military Times: Mere 15 Percent of Troops Approve of Obama

 

[TheTexan]

Does anybody actually believe this shit?

No shit. I mean really, who are you going to believe, some scrub nobody, or the President of the United States?

 

[Danke]

"He knew what he signed up for and the risk it involved. But he did it anyway because he loved his country...

 

[euphemia]

Stop spinning. People who go into the military do know what they sign up for. They, and their families, know there is always a risk they could die on the job. I grew up in a military family, and we always knew there were ideals worth fighting for. Libertarians believe that, and they would fight to their last breath for the ideal of liberty for all. There were times when PTA meetings at our school were all moms because all the dads were over in southeast Asia. It was a very unjust conflict, but that's how it is. My classmates had draft numbers. It was always a threat and not all of them signed up for it.

Zippy, this kind of stuff is why your side lost. People are offended by it and you need to cut it out. The rest of you should stop with the childish giggling. If you so-called liberty people had put up a halfway decent candidate you might have actually got some votes. Stop ragging on the president. He was duly elected and I am up to here with the silliness. Grow up.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Trump says Dem rep 'fabricated' account of call to soldier's widow, has 'proof'
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...foxnews/politics+(Internal+-+Politics+-+Text)

The woman he made the comment to verifies the story.

, Mr. Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, backed the congresswoman’s version. “Yes, he did state that comment,” Ms. Jones-Johnson said of Mr. Trump,

From the Fox link:

Wilson stood by her account Wednesday on Twitter. And on CNN, Wilson said she and other Johnson family members heard what Trump said because the call was put on a speakerphone.

"I have proof, too," she countered.

In another slap at Obama, Mr. Trump said, "Now, as far as other presidents, I don't know, I mean you can ask General Kelly, did he get a call from Obama? You could ask other people. I don't know what Obama's policy was. I write letters and I also call."

Mr. Trump was referring to Robert Kelly, son of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who was killed by an IED while serving as a second lieutenant in Afghanistan in 2010. It was Gen. Joseph Dunford, now the chairmain of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and among Kelly's closest friends, who appeared at his door in Washington D.C., early in the morning to inform him, according to the Washington Post, which also wrote that as soon as Kelly saw Dunford in his service uniform, he knew his son was dead.

A senior administration official says that Obama did not call Kelly after the death of his son.

John Kelly refuses to comment on if he was called or not.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-call-john-kelly-marine-son-died-action/story?id=50533292

The retired general’s son, 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, died in action while serving with the Marines in Afghanistan.

Kelly and his wife attended a breakfast for Gold Star families at the White House in 2011 and sat at first lady Michelle Obama's table, a person familiar with the breakfast told ABC News.

 

[euphemia]

Everyone can't be Ronald Reagan who always knew what to say and when. Or Calvin Coolidge who just kept quiet.

 

[donnay]

"He knew what he signed up for and the risk it involved. But he did it anyway because he loved his country...

Fact checked.

 

[Ender]

Yes- Trump did say this; you can slam on Zip all you want or actually own up to some of Trump's stupid remarks.

Florida Rep. Defends Call Claims: 'I Have Proof Too'
By Sandy Fitzgerald
Wednesday, 18 Oct 2017 8:43 AM

Rep. Frederica Wilson, who President Donald Trump claimed in a Wednesday morning tweet had "totally fabricated" what he'd said to the widow of a Green Beret killed in action in Niger, said she doesn't know what "proof" he says he has that she hadn't told the truth.

"I don't know what kind of proof he could be talking about," Wilson told CNN "New Day" co-host Alisyn Camerota. "I'm not the only person that was in the car. And I have proof too. This man is a sick man. He's cold hearted and he feels no pity or sympathy for anyone."

Wilson, D-Florida, initially complained about the president's call to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, 25, of Miami Gardens, Tuesday. Johnson died when he and three other Green Berets were ambushed Oct. 4 by ISIS terrorists in Niger.

"This is a grieving widow, a grieving widow who is six months pregnant," Wilson told Camerota. "This is a young woman. She's only 24 years old. She weighs maybe 110 pounds. And she has two other kids. 2 years old and 6 years old. When she actually hung up the phone and she looked at me and said 'he didn't even know his name.' Now, that's the worst part."

Wilson told CNN that she is not trying to prove anything about Trump, and he "evidently is lying, because what I said is true. I have no reason to lie on the president of the United States, with a dead soldier in my community. I have no time. I have no motive."

Wilson said there were other people who heard the speaker phone call, including Mrs. Johnson's aunt, uncle, her own press person, the driver, and the master sergeant making the trip to the airport in Miami.

"We're not trying to, leading up to the funeral of this young man, get into some sort of match with the president of the United States," Wilson told Camerota. "[Trump should be] trying to find out what he could do to make up for what he did say, instead of calling me a liar and calling everyone else in the car a liar. He doesn't even know how to sympathize with people."

Wilson also slammed Trump's decision to tweet an attack on her.

"It's disgraceful for him to even tweet about this, and as I say, this gentleman has a brain disorder and he needs to be checked out," said Wilson.

Trump's tweet came minutes after Wilson was being interviewed on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, and after she claimed that the president sounded as if he was "almost like joking" when he told the widow of a Green Beret sergeant killed in action in Niger that he "knew what he signed up for."

Story continues below video.

"He said, well, I guess you knew, something to the fact that he knew what he was getting into when he signed up, but I guess it hurts anyway,'" the Florida Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "You know, just matter of factually. That this happens. Anyone who is signing up for military duty is signing up to die. And that's the way we interpreted it, and it was horrible."

 

[Ender]

Stop spinning. People who go into the military do know what they sign up for. They, and their families, know there is always a risk they could die on the job. I grew up in a military family, and we always knew there were ideals worth fighting for. Libertarians believe that, and they would fight to their last breath for the ideal of liberty for all. There were times when PTA meetings at our school were all moms because all the dads were over in southeast Asia. It was a very unjust conflict, but that's how it is. My classmates had draft numbers. It was always a threat and not all of them signed up for it.

Zippy, this kind of stuff is why your side lost. People are offended by it and you need to cut it out. The rest of you should stop with the childish giggling. If you so-called liberty people had put up a halfway decent candidate you might have actually got some votes. Stop ragging on the president. He was duly elected and I am up to here with the silliness. Grow up.

Maybe you should say that to Trump?

 

[euphemia]

Maybe you should say that to Trump?

He's not the most eloquent president we have ever had. I don't know why he even bothers. He's really between a rock and a hard place. Darned if he does, darned if he doesn't. I'm really sick of all the snarking. We put up with Obama's smirking and snark for eight years. Liberty people should be better than that.

 

[dannno]

Yes- Trump did say this; you can slam on Zip all you want or actually own up to some of Trump's stupid remarks.

Or you can call zip and the rest of these dumbfucks out for being tools..

"He knew what he signed up for and the risk it involved. But he did it anyway because he loved his country...

That is a completely reasonable thing to say.

Just saying "He knew what he signed up for" to a grieving parent is NOT.

This is the essence of every Trump debate we have, the dishonest tactics are coming from YOUR side and you need to face up to it some day.

 

[specsaregood]

Stop spinning. People who go into the military do know what they sign up for. They, and their families, know there is always a risk they could die on the job.

Thing is, with these liberals continuing to try to push more kids into the military and/or mandating other forms of civil slavery, they really don't want them to know what they are signing up for.

 

[Raginfridus]

Everyone can't be Ronald Reagan who always knew what to say and when. Or Calvin Coolidge who just kept quiet.

You remember Calvin Coolidge?!

 

[Ender]

Or you can call zip and the rest of these dumbfucks out for being tools..

That is a completely reasonable thing to say.

Just saying "He knew what he signed up for" to a grieving parent is NOT.

This is the essence of every Trump debate we have, the dishonest tactics are coming from YOUR side and you need to face up to it some day.

I read about this earlier and it was Trump that made the big deal out of it.

Trump said this to a grieving pregnant WIFE on speaker phone, who was on her way to the casket- and several people heard it.

Why don't YOU stop being the dumb fuck and admit that Trump should learn to keep his mouth shut and stop with the tweets.

Here's the Congresswoman live: