By Jessica Chia
President Donald Trump reportedly called the widow of a U.S. soldier who was killed in Niger and said "he knew what he signed up for ... but when it happens it hurts anyway," according to Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson.
Wilson slammed Trump's response to the death of U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson, telling ABC, "It's so insensitive. He should not have said that. He shouldn't have said it."
Nearly two weeks after Johnson was killed during in an ambush alongside three Green Berets, Trump called his pregnant wife Myeshia Johnson on Tuesday afternoon.
The two spoke on the phone for five minutes before she met her husband's remains at Miami International Airport, draped herself over his casket and sobbed as their two children, ages 2 and 6, stood nearby.
On Tuesday, a White House official told reporter Ross Palombo, "The president's conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private."
Chelsea Clinton weighed in with her condolences on Twitter, writing, "Mrs. Johnson, I cannot begin to imagine your loss. Your family & all who mourn Sgt. Johnson are in my prayers & those of countless Americans."
Johnson, along with Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, Sgt. Bryan Black, and Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, responded to reports of a raid in Niger only to be ambushed by a group known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
It took two days to recover La David Johnson's body, which was returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware while Trump was golfing on Oct. 7.
When a reporter asked why it took Trump 12 days to acknowledge the death of the four U.S. fighters on Monday, he said he wrote letters and planned to call the families "at some point."
Trump's response sparked a controversy by questioning the protocol of previous presidents, saying "a lot of them didn't make calls."
Eric Holder, the former attorney general under President Barack Obama, tweeted a sharp rebuke, telling Trump, "Stop the damn lying _ you're the President. I went to Dover AFB with 44 and saw him comfort the families of both the fallen military & DEA."
