Business Insider is reporting today that the mother of a Black slain U.S. solider says the president showed disrespect to her fallen son.
However, President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he has proof that a Democratic Congresswoman “fabricated” her account of a call he made Tuesday to the widow of the Black soldier killed in an ambush in Africa earlier this month.
But that deceased soldier’s mother said the congresswoman was correct in her characterization of what Trump said, telling the Washington Post that Trump disrespected her son and daughter-in-law.
Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida told Miami’s ABC affiliate WPLG on Tuesday that Trump told Myeshia Johnson – the widow of of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four troops killed during a mission in Niger earlier this month — that, “He knew what he signed up for … but when it happens, it hurts anyway.”
“It’s so insensitive,” Wilson later told CNN’s Don Lemon. “He should have not have said that. He shouldn’t have said it.”
Wilson said she was riding in the car with Myeshia, who was on her way to the airport to receive her husband’s body, when Trump called.
The Florida Democrat then told MSNBC Wednesday morning that the soldier’s widow was “crying the whole time” and that when she hung up the phone, she looked at Wilson and said, “He didn’t even remember his name.”
She added that Trump “was almost like joking.”
“He said, ‘Well, I guess you knew’ — something to the effect that ‘he knew what he was getting into when he signed up, but I guess it hurts anyway.’ You know, just matter-of-factly, that this is what happens, anyone who is signing up for military duty is signing up to die,” Wilson said. “That’s the way we interpreted it. It was horrible. It was insensitive. It was absolutely crazy, unnecessary. I was livid.”
Trump responded to Wilson’s comments on Wednesday morning, claiming that she “totally fabricated” her account of Trump’s remarks.
Johnson’s mother told the Post via Facebook Messenger that Wilson’s account of the conversation was accurate.
“President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Cowanda Jones-Johnson told the Post. Though she declined to elaborate, she said “yes” when asked if Wilson’s account was true.
