Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) is not backing off her claim that President Trump disrespected a fallen soldier's widow earlier this week. Trump phoned Myeshia Johnson to share his condolences for the death of her husband Sgt. La David Johnson, who died during an Islamic State ambush in Niger earlier this month. Wilson says she overheard some of the president's words via speakerphone and swears she heard him insensitively say that Johnson "knew what he signed up for."
President Trump rebuked Wilson on Twitter and called her a liar, but she has not changed her story.
White House Chief of Staff and former Gen. John Kelly, who lost a son in combat, was so distraught by the politicization of the soldiers' deaths in Niger, that he took a somber visit to Arlington Cemetery to collect his thoughts. Once he had, he offered some poignant, yet strong remarks at Thursday's White House press briefing. At one point, he scolded Rep. Wilson for supposedly bragging about getting securing funding for an FBI field office in 2015.
Wilson, after hearing the remarks, said she feels "sympathy" for Gen. Kelly and the loss of his son, but insisted he can't just "go on TV and lie." Somehow, she perceived part of his speech as being "racist."
Democratic Rep. Wilson: "Empty barrel," used by WH Chief of Staff Kelly to describe her, is a "racist term" https://t.co/356W7kIDPJ
— New Day (@NewDay) October 20, 2017
Wilson told CNN's Alisyn Camerota that Kelly's "empty barrel" remark was racist, but didn't explain why.
"We looked it up in the dictionary, because I had never heard of an empty barrel. And I don't like to be dragged into something like that," she said.
Following Kelly's speech and President Trump's tweets calling Wilson a liar, the representative jokingly referred to herself as a "rock star." Yet, on CNN Friday she said her No. 1 concern is the families. She wants answers on the Niger mission and why our troops were there in the first place and what led to the Islamic State attack.
"My emphasis today is on my constituents and helping them lay our hero to rest," she said. "That's where my head is today. I'm also concerned about (Sgt. La David Johnson) and his last moments. I want to know why he was separated from the rest of the soldiers."
Sgt. La David Johnson, Staff Sgts. Bryan Black, Dustin Wright, and Jeremiah Johnson were the brave soldiers who died in the Islamic State ambush in Niger.
As Gen. Kelly pleaded, please let's leave soldiers' sacrifices as the last thing that is sacred.