President Donald Trump defended Wednesday his conversation with the a fallen soldier’s widow who said Trump didn’t remember her husband’s name.
Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson who was killed in Niger, said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday that the President stumbled on her husband’s name and suggested the only reason he knew it was because the report was right in front of him.
“I was really nice to her. I respect her, I respect her family, I certainly respect La David, who I, by the way, called La David right from the beginning,” Trump said Wednesday. “They put a chart in front, La David, it says La David Johnson.”
Johnson said she was distraught over Trump’s alleged oversights during the call, which came as the Johnson family and Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Florida, who is a friend of the family, rode in a limo to receive Johnson’s body from Dover Air Force Base.
“(The call) made me cry because I was very angry at the tone of his voice,” Johnson had said.
Trump was asked Wednesday if he said something to her that he didn’t to other families of fallen soldiers, to which the President answered, “I would say basically we talked condolence.”
Trump also accused the media of not reporting on the other phone calls he has made to military families and said everyone else he spoke to “couldn’t have been nicer.”
“I was extremely nice to her,” Trump said. “Nobody has more respect than I do. Nobody.”
