A fallen soldier’s widow on Monday joined the stormy dispute with US President Donald Trump over his response to her husband’s death, saying that his failure to remember the soldier’s name in last week’s condolence call “made me cry.”
Trump said that the call was “very respectful” and her accusation about her husband’s name was not true.
Although Trump refused to let the new round of complaints go unanswered, he steered clear of the insults he exchanged last week with a congresswoman who had overhead the sympathy call.
Trump spoke in public at two events during the day — including his awarding of the military Medal of Honor to a Vietnam-era army medic — and made no mention of the case of Sergeant La David Johnson, one of four soldiers killed on Oct. 4 in a firefight with militants tied to the Islamic State group in Niger.
Myeshia Johnson said she had not been able to see her husband’s body.
“I need to see him so I will know that that is my husband,” she said. “I don’t know nothing, they won’t show me a finger, a hand.”
A Pentagon spokeswoman said that the military often makes recommendations on viewing, but that soldiers’ bodies are prepared and turned over to the family and its funeral director.
Myeshia Johnson spoke for the first time about the dispute on ABC’s Good Morning America. In the interview, she supported critical statements by US Representative Frederica Wilson, who had been in the car with the widow and other relatives when Trump called.
“Yes, the president said that ‘he knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyway,’ and it made me cry ’cause I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said he couldn’t remember my husband’s name,” Johnson said.
Trump answered on Twitter soon after the interview aired, saying: “I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!”
Besides Johnson’s family, members of Congress are demanding answers. Last week, US Senator John McCain threatened a subpoena to accelerate the flow of information.
The row over Trump’s call began last week when Wilson accused Trump of being callous in the conversation and Trump responded that Wilson’s account was fabricated.
However, Johnson backed Wilson’s account, saying that the lawmaker was a longtime friend and listened on a speakerphone in the car with family members.
Meanwhile, the family of Captain Ben Cross, who was one of three US Marines killed in an MV-22 Osprey crash in August off the coast of Australia, received a letter from Trump on Friday, a day after his brother called out Trump.
The timing of the letter indicated “it was obviously done in an attempt to repair the political damage,” Ryan Cross said. “We think he was going through the motions.”
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