President Donald Trump again challenged Congresswoman Frederica Wilson for her account of his phone call to the widow of slain Army Sgt. La David Johnson.
“I did not say what she said,” Trump replied when asked at the White House on Wednesday about the call. “And I’d like her to make the statement again because I did not say what she said.”
Johnson and three other U.S. Green Berets were killed in an ambush while on a routine joint patrol in Niger.
Trump said that he had a “nice conversation” with the widow, Myeshia Johnson, but said Wilson’s account of the conversation was false.
“Most people aren’t too surprised to hear that,” Trump added.
Wilson told news reporters that Trump said, “He knew what he signed up for … but when it happens, it hurts anyway.”
Trump denied the account on Twitter Wednesday morning:
Johnson’s mother, however, told the Washington Post that she felt disrespected by the call.
“President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” she told the Post.
The White House responded that the conversation was private and would not discuss the details.
“The president’s conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private,” a White House official told reporters in a statement.