It looks like Trump is going to end up in a “he said/she said” with, at “best”, Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson, and at worst, with a dead soldier’s widow.
As you know, Trump got himself into trouble on Monday when, during his 45 minute Rose Garden ramble, he suggested that Barack Obama and other Presidents didn’t call the wives of fallen soldiers. Representatives for Obama, Bush, and Clinton all denied those claims.
Rather than let it go, Trump took the “unusual” step of dragging his Chief of Staff’s dead son into things. After tipping his hand in a Tuesday morning radio interview (“ask General Kelly…“), he had Sarah Huckabee Sanders “confirm” to the media that Kelly didn’t get a call from Obama, a move which you’ve got to think Kelly was not pleased with. Here’s the Post:
For the past seven years, Gen. John F. Kelly has gone out of his way to keep the death of his son free from politics.
He did not talk about him when – just four days after his death in southern Afghanistan – Kelly found himself commemorating two other Marines killed in combat, in a moving speech in St. Louis. In fact, according to a Washington Post report, he specifically asked the officer introducing him not to mention his boy, 1st Lt. Robert M. Kelly, who was killed instantly when he stepped on a land mine while on patrol in 2010.
Just last month, Kelly slipped away from the White House to attend a Marine Corps scholarship golf tournament in his son’s memory, with little fanfare or attention.
But on Tuesday, Kelly’s boss, President Trump, thrust his son into the public and political glare, invoking the younger Kelly as part of a continuing attack on former president Barack Obama.
It goes without saying that everyone will now be on a quest to scrutinize Trump’s own calls to fallen soldiers and sure enough, Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Florida) says she literally heard Trump tell Myeshia Johnson, the wife of U.S. Army Sergeant La David Johnson, who was killed this month in Niger, that the deceased Johnson “knew what he was signing up for.” Here’s more:
The longer version (allegedly) is this: “he knew what he was signing up for, but when it happens it hurts anyways.”
The only way this could be any more egregious is if the solider was African American. Oh, wait.
But at least the lawmaker accusing Trump wasn’t herself an African American. Oh, wait.
But at least this doesn’t relate to the very same incident in Niger which sparked the initial controversy at the Rose Garden Q&A on Monday. Oh, wait.
But at least Trump isn’t already tweeting about it. Oh, wait.
“She better hope there are no tapes!”
Needless to say, this has the potential to spiral completely out of control and we’d be willing to bet you haven’t heard the last from Trump on it. The real question now is whether the widow herself will ultimately get involved, setting the stage for a racially-charged back-and-forth between the President and the widow of a slain service member.
No doubts, he said it – sounds just like him! including his bullshit “I have proof” – yah, sure you do, show me.