NEW YORK _ There is no transcript of the controversial condolence call President Donald Trump made to the family of a slain soldier _ despite a reference to one in an interview with Trump's daughter-in-law on Friday.
Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt asked Lara Trump, Eric Trump's wife, about the president's words during an interview on "Fox & Friends."
Trump publicly denied telling the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson that he "knew what he signed up for," which his chief of staff John Kelly later contradicted.
"You read the transcript. What were your thoughts?" Earhardt asked Lara Trump Friday morning.
Lara Trump replied that having "read exactly what he said" she was under the impression that the media distorted her father-in-law's words.
"He said, 'Your husband went into battle, you know, knowing that he could be injured, knowing that he could be killed, and he still did it because he loved this country, and he did it for the American people,'" Lara Trump said.
"I can't think of a better way, quite frankly, to express my gratitude to someone than by saying something like that."
There is no transcript of the call, a White House official told The New York Daily News.
Trump has faced a volley of criticism after Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., a longtime family friend of the Johnsons, said Trump was disrespectful with Johnson's widow, Myeshia, when he called her on Tuesday.
Johnson was one of four Americans killed two weeks ago during an ambush in Niger.
The president denied Wilson's claims, calling them "fabricated."
White House chief of staff John Kelly, a former Marine general, defended his boss.
Kelly, whose son was killed in combat in Afghanistan, claimed Thursday that he instructed the president on what to say on the call.
"In his way (he) tried to express that opinion _ he's a brave man, a fallen hero, he knew what he was getting himself in to because he enlisted," the four-star general said. "He was where he wanted to be, exactly where he wanted to be with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken. "That was the message. That was the message that was transmitted," he added.
