Donald Trump Dares Dem Rep To Repeat Claim About His Call To Soldier’s Widow; She Obliges
“I did not say what that congresswoman said. Didn’t say it at all. She knows it, and she now is not saying it,” President Donald Trump said at a White House photo op today.
Democratic Congresswoman Frederica Wilson on Tuesday night claimed Trump called the widow of a soldier killed in Niger as she was driving to the airport to receive his body, reducing her to tears and telling her, “I’m sure he knew what he was signed up for, but when it happens, it hurts anyway.” Wilson, who had known the soldier since childhood, was in the vehicle with Myeshia Johnson, widow of La David Johnson and said she heard that part of the phone call on speaker phone. Wilson was the darling of the morning TV news cycle as her story got some serious legs.
“I had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife, who sounded like a very lovely woman,” Trump pushed back during the photo op. “Did not say what congresswoman said, and most people are not too surprised to hear that.”
Asked how he would prove that in what had shaped up as a he-said-she-said situation, Trump shot back, cryptically, “Let her make her statement again and then you’ll find out.”
The Dem Florida congresswoman obliged, tweeting:
I still stand by my account of the call b/t @realDonaldTrump and Myeshia Johnson. That is her name, Mr. Trump. Not "the woman" or "the wife"
— Rep Frederica Wilson (@RepWilson) October 18, 2017
Trump’s remarks came in response to to a question lobbed at him during a White House photo op with Senate Finance Committee members, who had come to talk about his tax plan. After walking reporters through his tax-plan talking points and forecasting “unanimous support” as Missouri’s Dem Sen. Claire McCaskill sat stony-faced to his right, Trump then crossed his arms over his chest and let reporters began shouting questions. He chose to answer the one about Wilson. The mother of La David Johnson has stood by Wilson, saying her account of the phone call is accurate.
Guess what White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is going to get asked about at the White House briefing, expected to start momentarily?
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