President Donald Trump’s latest adversary on Twitter is Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democratic congresswoman from Florida.
On Wednesday, the President accused Wilson of fabricating what she said he told a widow of one of four United States soldiers killed in Niger earlier this month, and said he could prove that she was wrong.
“Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!” Trump tweeted.
On Tuesday evening, Wilson claimed that the President told Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, that “he knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurt.” Wilson said she was present for the conversation, which she heard on speaker phone.
Wilson represents Florida’s 24th District, which includes parts of northwest Miami-Dade and southern Broward counties and is where the Johnson family is from. She was first elected as a Florida state representative in 1998 and became a state senator in 2002 before being elected to the House of Representatives in 2011.
This isn’t Wilson’s first time disagreeing with Trump. She was one of nearly 70 members of Congress who said they would not attend Trump’s inauguration.
It also isn’t the first time she has said something is wrong with Trump.
“I believe that the President is desperate for attention and needs psychological help,” Wilson said in a statement in May after The Washington Post reported that the President had shared classified information with Russians in the White House.Â
The Florida congresswoman is known for her work following the death of Trayvon Martin, who was killed in her district. She used her platform to organize rallies in Miami and call for an end to the killing of young black men. She also fought for funding to combat the Zika virus, which swept through the area she represents in southern Florida.
Wilson is a widow herself and the mother to three children. She is recognized around the Capitol for her colorful cowboy hats, which she wears in honor of her grandfather.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that there was no recording of the phone call between the President and Johnson, but “there were several people in the room from the administration that were on the call, including the chief of staff, John Kelly.”
On Wednesday morning on CNN’s “New Day,” Wilson said that Trump didn’t know the name of the service member and that his widow “broke down” after her call with the President. Family member Cowanda Jones-Johnson told CNN Wednesday that Wilson’s account of the call between Trump and Johnson’s widow was “very accurate.” She said she was in the car when the call happened.
Trump denied Wilson’s account in both a tweet and a statement made at the White House.
“I didn’t say what that congresswoman said. Didn’t say it at all,” Trump told reporters during a meeting on tax reform in the Cabinet Room. “She knows it. And she now is not saying it. I did not say what she said.”
Minutes later, Wilson responded on Twitter to Trump’s remarks, saying she still stood by her account. She then told CNN affiliate WPLG that “Mr. Trump is crazy,” hours after she told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota that the President has a “brain disorder.”
