President Donald Trump continued to be embroiled in controversy after a phone call he made to the widow of slain soldier Sergeant La David Johnson. Johnson was killed in an Islamist attack in Niger on October 4. Myeshia Johnson said that the call left her crying and distraught after the President's remarks. The controversy landed the president in a lot of hot water and escalated when Florida Congresswoman Felicia Wilson got involved and had an exchange with President Trump. Other Gold Star Families, those who have lost their own service members, are speaking out on the issue, and there are calls to end the politicizing of military deaths.
Gold Star families speak out
CNN reported that Gold Star widow Natasha De Alencar said that President Trump understood what she was going through after her husband Staff Sergeant Mark R. De Alencar was killed in action. He died in Afghanistan on April 8, the first American to be killed in Afghanistan this year. President Trump called her four days later to express his condolences. He said that what had happened was a horrible thing and that he was sorry to hear about her husband's death. Trump called her husband a hero.
WDTV Channel 5 reported that De Alencar released the audio of her exchange with President Trump to the Washington Post after the controversy over the most recent call the President made.
Congresswoman Wilson criticized the President after his call to the widow of Sergeant La David Johnson. Mrs. Johnson said that Trump forgot her husband's name and that her husband knew what he was getting into. Sarah Roberge, whose brother was killed eight years ago, said that President Obama only sent a letter and that she would have preferred a phone call.
Politicizing the issue
Fox News reported that it was time to stop weaponizing Gold Star families. Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is a Gold Star father, got involved in the debate and was attacked by the left. Author Erick Erickson said that families will not always say patriotic things as in the case of Cindy Sheehan, the mother who started Code Pink after her son was killed in Iraq in 2004.
Families still have the right to speak out. The issue needs to be resolved without calling either President Trump or Congresswoman Wilson liars. Erickson went on to say that first-person testimony is highly unreliable, especially when the person is under stress or distracted. The President made the call in good faith and went off script. Liberals need to acknowledge that Trump would not act so callously toward the family member of a service member who gets killed.
Sergeant La David Johnson, 25, was laid to rest by his family and 1,200 mourners. The family asked that the press stay outside the church during a service that paid tribute to the four U.S. Army soldiers who were killed in Niger during an ambush instigated by Islamic militants on October 4. Currently, the Pentagon has a team in Niger on a fact-finding mission to determine what happened.
