Has Donald Trump Called Family of Dead Us Servicemember
President Trump has claimed that he alone — non Barack Obama or other past presidents — has called "virtually" all families of U.Southward. soldiers who have died in service since Trump took role in Jan.
But Golden Star families have since lashed out at Trump over his faux claims about by presidents, recalling how they were comforted past Obama and former President George West. Bush as they grieved. Trump was soon forced to walk back what Obama aides called an "outrageous lie," admitting that his predecessor "probably [called] sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn't. I don't know."
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But now some family unit members of the fallen are coming forward to dispute the other function of Trump's claim — maxim they never received calls of condolence from the sitting president.
Whitney Hunter, whose husband was killed in a suicide bombing attack in Afghanistan nigh three months ago, tells The Fayetteville Observer that she was promised a phone call from Trump that never came.
In the months that followed, Whitney received messages from senators, governors and members of Congress — just not Trump.
She says that while a letter wouldn't necessarily mean "a great deal," she felt the president should have in some mode best-selling the ultimate cede made by her married man, Sgt. Jonathon Hunter.
"It felt … similar the importance wasn't as dire, like he wasn't acknowledged," she told the paper of her husband. Trump "is the president. It only kind of bothered me a picayune bit."
Chris Baldridge, the male parent of Army Cpl. Dillon Baldridge, who was gunned down by an Afghan law officeholder along with two other soldiers in June, told the Washington Postal service he did receive a call from President Trump after his son's death, but never received the $25,000 he said Trump offered him.
"He said, 'I'm going to write you a bank check out of my personal account for $25,000,' and I was just floored," Baldridge told the Postal service. "I could not believe he was saying that, and I wish I had it recorded considering the man did say this. He said, 'No other president has ever done something like this,' but he said, 'I'thou going to exercise it.' "
On Wednesday afternoon, White Firm spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told the Post: "The check has been sent. It's disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately by the President, and using information technology to advance the media's biased agenda."
The Associated Press also spoke with relatives of two soldiers who died overseas during Trump'southward presidency who said they never received a call or a letter from Trump, every bit well as relatives of a third soldier who did non get a call from him.
Brittany Harris, the widow of 25-year-old Ground forces Spc. Christopher Michael Harris, who was killed along with another soldier in a suicide assail in Afghanistan in August, said the White Business firm reached out to set upward a call with Trump merely "information technology fell through." She did not receive a letter from the president after that. The family unit did encounter Vice President Mike Pence at Dover Air Force Base, where they went to receive Michael's remains, and said they found Pence's words comforting.
Brittany, who is now 17 weeks pregnant, said she's received an outpouring of back up from the Pentagon and other authorities officials, including Defense Secretarial assistant James Mattis, who sent her a handwritten note.
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Sheila Murphy, the female parent of 22-year-former Army Spc. Etienne J. Murphy, who was killed in May later an armored vehicle he was in rolled over in Syria, told the AP neither she nor her son'south widow ever received a letter or call from Trump.
"Considering it was non-combat, I feel like peradventure he thought it was an blow, it doesn't affair," she said. "But my son was in Syrian arab republic."
Sheila said an army casualty assistance officer told her the White House would ship a letter, but it so far has not arrived.
Six weeks ago, she finally wrote a letter to Trump saying she and her husband were nevertheless suffering from deep grief. She did not receive a response.
"It wasn't a mean letter," she said. "I was telling him I know he's a grandfather. I told him I'k trying to be here for my grandkids, merely some days I don't desire to live."
Laura Butler, the mother of 27-twelvemonth-old Aaron Butler, a guardsman who was killed in August at a booby-trapped edifice in Afghanistan, told the AP Trump has not called her either, though many other officials have.
Laura said her family unit did not expect the president to telephone call and they appreciate the "intense support" from the White Business firm.
"The family is very careful that they do non want to be pulled into a partisan slugfest," said the family's spokesman, Bill Boyle. "He would be very upset if his proper noun or his death or his sacrifice was used as a tool to split up the country, and they're fearful that this could happen."
The latest controversy surrounding Trump comes as a result of his initial claims during a printing conference on Monday that his predecessor never chosen the families of U.S. soldiers killed in the line of duty overseas.
Asked whether he would telephone call the families of the four U.South. Army special operations commandos killed in an deadfall in Niger before this month — whom the president had yet to publicly annotate on — Trump said he would and then claimed that Obama had not done and so in similar situations.
"The traditional manner if you wait at President Obama and the other presidents, nearly of them didn't brand calls, a lot of them didn't brand calls," Trump said. "I like to call when it'southward advisable, when I think I'yard able to do it. They made the ultimate cede, then generally I would say that I similar to call."
Myeshia Johnson cries over the trunk of her slain husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, later it was returned to the U.S. on Tuesday.
| Credit: CBS Miami
The soldiers killed in the attack were Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, Staff Sgt. Bryan Blackness and Sgt. La David Johnson — whose mother said Wed that Trump "disrespected" her son and family unit during a phone call of condolence.
Cowanda Jones-Johnson confirmed Rep. Frederica Wilson's before account that Trump told the soldier'south widow on the call that "he knew what he signed up for."
Source: https://people.com/politics/gold-star-families-president-trump-never-called/
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