La David Johnson’s widow on Trump’s condolence call: “He couldn’t remember my husband’s name”

Impact

Myeshia Johnson, widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, broke her silence Monday morning about the condolence call she received from President Donald Trump, telling Good Morning America that Trump “couldn’t remember” her husband’s name and that the call left her feeling “very upset and hurt.”

“It made me cry because I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said it. He couldn’t remember my husband’s name,” Johnson said in the interview of Trump. “The only way he remembered my husband’s name [was] because he told me he had my husband’s report in front of him and that’s when he actually said La David. I heard him stumbling on trying to remember my husband’s name and that’s what hurt me the most, because if my husband is out here fighting for our country, and he risked his life for our country, why can’t you remember his name?”

Trump responded to Johnson shortly after her interview aired, defending his call and suggesting Johnson is a liar.

“I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!” Trump tweeted.

Johnson gave the interview to Good Morning America in an effort to set the record straight over the phone call she received from Trump after her husband was killed in action in Niger.

Controversy erupted when Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) publicly revealed the Johnson family was upset by Trump’s phone call.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly blasted Wilson, saying he was stunned she would speak publicly about the call and calling her an “empty barrel,” a term suggesting Wilson is not intelligent. Some of Kelly’s attacks about Wilson also turned out to be untrue.

Trump has also spent days attacking Wilson, saying she lied about what he said on the call and calling her a “disaster” for the Democratic Party.

But Johnson confirmed Wilson’s account of the call and described her as a close family friend.

“Whatever Ms. Wilson said was not fabricated,” Johnson said. “What she said was 100% correct.”

Ultimately, Johnson said she wants the world to know “how great of a soldier” her husband was and said she’s going to tell her yet-to-be-born daughter that her dad was a hero.

Oct. 23, 2017 8:40 a.m.: This article has been updated