A Florida congresswoman said that the family of a U.S. service member killed in Niger was “astonished” when President Donald Trump suggested in a phone call that the soldier “must’ve known what he signed up for.”
Rep. Frederica Wilson told NBC Miami that she heard the president’s comment to Sgt. La David T. Johnson’s widow, Myeshia, on speaker phone as they traveled together to meet his body on Tuesday.
“He said, ‘But you know he must’ve known what he signed up for,'” the Democrat recounted Trump saying more than once during the call to express his sympathy. According to Wilson, the conversation lasted somewhere from three to five minutes.
“Everyone knows when you go to war you could possibly not come back alive but you don’t remind a grieving widow of that,” Wilson said. “That’s so insensitive.”
Wilson confirmed the details of the call in an email to NBC News sent by a spokesperson Tuesday night. The statement from Wilson described Johnson’s family as “astonished” by Trump’s comment.
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“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. “It was almost like saying, ‘You signed up to do this, and if you didn’t want to die, shouldn’t have signed up.'”
Johnson was one of four U.S. service members killed in an ambush by militants in Niger that occurred on Oct. 4. Officials said they were participating in a train-and-advise mission with local forces.
Johnson, 25, of Miami Gardens, was found dead after initially being reported as missing after the attack.
He was a driver assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The Military Times reported that Johnson has received 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.
The White House said Tuesday that the president had called the families of all four service members who were killed. “He offered condolences on behalf of a grateful nation and assured them their family’s extraordinary sacrifice to the country will never be forgotten,” the White House said.
Asked about Wilson’s characterization of the call, a White House official said Tuesday night that “the president’s conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private.”
Trump on Monday falsely claimed that former President Barack Obama didn’t call the families of fallen service members while he was in office, but when pressed admitted that he didn’t know Obama’s practice.
Former Obama administration officials, including former Attorney General Eric Holder, disputed Trump’s claim.
In a radio interview on Tuesday, Trump defended his claim by alluding to former Gen. John Kelly’s son, a Marine who died in Afghanistan in November 2010.
A current White House official told NBC News on Tuesday that Obama did not call Kelly after the death of his son.
But a person familiar with the breakfast for Gold Star families — the term for those who have lost loved ones during military service — at the White House on May 30, 2011, told NBC News that Kelly and his wife attended the private event and were seated at first lady Michelle Obama’s table.
Trump made the claim about Obama after he was asked why he had not made public statements about the four service members killed in Niger sooner.
A senior White House official said that the White House did not receive detailed information from the Defense Department about the four fallen soldiers until Oct. 12, and the vetting of that information was not completed by the White House Military Office until Monday.
News of the deaths of the three service members initially found dead after the ambush was reported by the Defense Department in a statement on Oct. 6, and the news of Johnson’s death was reported by the department on Oct. 7.
A GoFundMe page to support scholarships for Sgt. La David T. Johnson and Myeshia Johnson’s children, who are aged 2 and 6, had raised more than $150,000 as of early Wednesday.
During the election campaign, Gold Star father Khizr Khan accused Trump of repeatedly attacking his family after he spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
Khan’s son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed by a car bomb in 2004 while guarding the gates of his base in Iraq, saving the lives of his fellow soldiers and civilians. He was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
“Let me ask you,” Khan said, addressing Trump in his DNC speech. “Have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy.”
He added: “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”
Trump responded by suggesting Khan’s mother, who is Muslim, had not “been allowed” to speak at the DNC.
The families of 17 service members who died fighting for the U.S. later demanded an apology from Trump, accusing him of “cheapening the sacrifice made by those we lost.”
CORRECTION (Oct. 18, 4:20 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article referred to Sgt. La David T. Johnson as a Green Beret. He was a service member assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). It also said the attack happened “last week.” It occurred on Oct. 4.