Gold Star Widow Confirms Wilson’s Account of Phone Call With Trump
Myeshia Johnson says Rep. Frederica Wilson’s account of the call is ‘100 percent correct’
In her first public appearance since her husband’s death, Gold Star widow Myeshia Johnson confirmed Rep. Frederica Wilson’s assertions last week about President Donald Trump’s phone call with Johnson.
[Exclusive: Pentagon Document Contradicts Trump’s Gold Star Claims]
The Florida Democrat’s account of the conversation with the president was “100 percent correct,” Johnson said Monday on “Good Morning America.”
Johnson’s husband, U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson, was one of four service members killed in Niger earlier this month in an ambush conducted by Islamist rebels. He was buried Saturday in Hollywood, Florida.
Trump told Myeshia Johnson her husband “knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyways,” she said Monday.
“It made me cry,” she said. “I was very angry at the tone of his voice, and how he said it.”
Myeshia Johnson also said the president could not remember her husband’s name.
“That’s what hurt me the most,” she said.
Trump denied that element of the story on Twitter on Monday morning.
“I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!”
I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2017
Wilson was in the car when Trump called Myeshia Johnson to offer his condolences. The congresswoman touched off a feud with the White House when she made public Trump’s comment that Sgt. Johnson “must have known what he signed up for.”
The president strongly denied Wilson’s assertion, saying he had proof it was totally fabricated.
Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, said she had seen a transcript of the call with Myeshia Johnson that verified the president’s account. But White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had previously said the conversation was not recorded, which meant such a transcript did not exist.
Flying to the president’s defense, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly referred to Wilson as an “empty barrel” and accused her of taking credit in 2015 for getting funding an FBI field office in Miami.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel published a video of Wilson’s speech at the event debunking Kelly’s claim.
Female members of the Congressional Black Caucus demanded an apology from Kelly on Sunday.
His statements were “reckless and false,” they wrote, adding that the video of her speech “provides indisputable proof that she never made any of the statements of which General Kelly falsely accused her.”
Conservative social media users over the weekend shared a graphic in which Myeshia Johnson on Facebook appeared to be calling out Wilson for using her husband as a “political platform.”
The graphic is fake. The post does not appear on Myeshia Johnson’s Facebook page. Its “publication” is dated an hour before Trump called Johnson to offer his condolences for the death of her husband.
Myeshia Johnson confirmed to ABC News that she did not write the post.
Mrs. Johnson confirms to ABC News that she did not write this post. It is fake. https://t.co/yN9P8M2fYL
— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) October 22, 2017
Myeshia Johnson remembered her husband Monday as a man of high ambition. She called him an “awesome soldier” who was very focused on working hard to achieve higher rank.
“My husband had high hopes in a military career,” she said.