WASHINGTON. After her son of the army died as a result of an armored car in Syria in May in May, says Sheila Murphy, she did not receive a call or a letter from President Donald Trump, even when she waited for his condolences for months, she wrote to him: “From time to time I do not want to live,” and still did not hear anything.
On the contrary, Trump called for consolation of Eddie and Lee Lee about 10 days after their army son was killed as a result of an explosion during patrolling in Iraq in April. “A wonderful young man,” Trump said, according to Aldin. She thought it was a wonderful word to hear about her boy “beautiful.”
Like the presidents before him, Trump established personal contact with some families of the fallen, not with everyone. What is different is that Trump, one among them, chose a political struggle for who did better to honor the war of the dead and their family.
He placed himself on the top of this pantheon, on Tuesday boasted that “I think that I called every family the one who died,” while the former presidents did not call such calls.
But the Associated Press discovered relatives of two soldiers who died abroad during Trump’s presidency, who said that they had never received a call or a letter from him, as well as relatives of the third who did not call. And there is a lot of proof that Barack Obama and George Bush are burdened with a much larger number of combat victims than about two dozen under Trump, they took painstaking steps to write, call or meet military families of the dead.
The subject arose because almost two weeks passed before Trump called the families of four American soldiers who were killed in Niger almost two weeks ago. He made calls on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a member of the House of Representatives of Frederick Wilson said late on Tuesday evening that Trump told the widow of the murdered soldier that he “knew what he had subscribed to.” At the beginning of Wednesday, the president called the version of Wilson’s conversation “Production”.
Democrat of Florida stated that she was in the car with Mishia Johnson on the way to Miami International Airport to meet with her husband Johnson, sergeant. LA David Johnson when Trump called. Wilson says she heard part of the conversation on a loud phone.
When she asked the Miami station, if she really heard that Trump said that she replied: “Yes, he said that. For me, this is what you can say in a conversation, but you should not talk about this grieving widow. ” She added: “This is so insensitive.”
Trump took on a strong problem with this story at the beginning of Wednesday.
“The Democrats congressmen fully fabricated what I told the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have evidence). Sad!” He said on Twitter.
Sergeant Johnson was among four troops killed in Niger's ambush.
Wilson said that she had not heard the whole conversation, and Misha Johnson told her that she could not remember everything that was said.
The White House did not immediately comment on.
Read more: Trump's statement about predecessors, the fallen troops disputed
Trump’s delay in the public discussion of people lost in Niger was not unusual, judging by the past examples, but his politicization of this issue. On Tuesday, he left to bring the death of the chief of staff of John Kelly in Afghanistan to wonder if Lee Obama was properly awarded the Dead War.
Kelly was a Marine Corps General led by Obama, when his naval son Robert died in 2010. “Could you ask General Kelly, did they call Obama?” Trump said to Fox News Radio.
Democrats and some former government officials were furious, accusing Trump of “senseless cruelty” and “sick game”.
Senator -Democrat Tammy Dakvort from Illinois, a veteran of Iraq, who lost both legs, when her helicopter was attacked, said: “I just want this commander in chief to stop using the families of gold stars as pawns in any sick game that he is trying to play here.”
For their part, the Gold Star family, who lost members in wartime, told AP about acts of intimate kindness from Obama and Bush when their main commanders comforted them.
Initially, Trump claimed that only he had made sure among the presidents to call families. Obama may have done this sometimes, he said, but “other presidents did not call.”
On Tuesday, he was deprived of, because the record clearly indicated that his characteristic was false. “I don't know,” he said about past calls. But he said that his own practice was to call all the families from the war the dead.
But this did not happen:
The White House protocol demands that the presidents talk or meet with the families of Americans killed in battle – an impossible task at the most bloody stages of the war. But they often do.
In general, about 6900 Americans were killed in foreign wars since September 11, 2001, attacks, the vast majority of Bush and Obama.
Despite the much more severe damage on its clock – more than 800 people died per year from 2004 to 2007 – Bush wrote to all dead military families and met or talked with hundreds, if not thousands, his representative Freddy Ford said.
Groups of veterans said that they did not quarrel with how the presidents recognized the fallen or their family.
“I do not think that there is some president who I know who did not call the family,” said Rick Weidman, co-founder and executive director of America Vietnamese veterans Vietnam. “President Obama often called, and President Bush often called. They also regularly visited Walter Reed and Betesda Medical Center, going in the evenings and on Saturdays. ”
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Binum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Jonathan painted in the role, North Carolina, Kristen de Grot in Philadelphia, Jennifer McDermatot in Providence, Rod -Alend, Michel Price in Solta -Loik -City, and Nadezhda Jena and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.
