local10 | President Donald Trump told U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson's
widow Tuesday that "he knew what he signed up for ... but when it
happens, it hurts anyway," when he died serving in northwestern Africa,
according to U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Florida.
"Yeah, he said that," Wilson said. "So insensitive. He should have not have said that. He shouldn't have said it."
The president called about 4:45 p.m. and spoke to Johnson's pregnant
widow, Myeshia Johnson, for about five minutes. She is a mother to
Johnson's surviving 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. The
conversation happened before Johnson's remains arrived at Miami
International Airport on a commercial Delta Airlines flight.
"The president's conversations with the
families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are
private," a top advisor later told Local 10 News.
Wilson watched as the widow,
who is expecting their third baby in January, leaned over the U.S. flag
that was draping Johnson's casket. Her pregnant belly was shaking
against the casket as she sobbed uncontrollably. Their daughter stood
next to her stoically. Their toddler waited in the arms of a relative.
There was silence.
Local politicians, police officers and
firefighters lined up to honor Johnson for his service and for the
efforts and discipline that got the former Walmart employee to defy all
odds and become a 25-year-old member of the 3rd Special Forces Group at
Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Johnson, who participated in a mentorship
program Wilson founded in 1993, died during a mission fighting alongside
Green Berets. Islamic militants ambushed them on Oct. 4
with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. The team reportedly didn't have overhead armed air cover and was in unarmored pickup trucks. Reuters reported the lack of planning upset the French.
Trump didn't discuss any of the details of
the ambush or say that the Pentagon was conducting an investigation.
Instead, he focused on questions about whether or not he had offered his
condolences to the families of the fallen.
