[Prior to Chief of Staff John Kelly’s remarks about Frederica Wilson] After talking to people on both sides of the aisle, I’m convinced that most Democrats think that the politicization of this “private call” is President Trump and his administration’s fault, and most Republicans think it’s Rep. Frederica Wilson’s fault. Attempting to remove politics, and considering President Trump lacks tact and compassion in the most obvious situations, I still think it’s safe to assume that he did not call this gold star widow with malicious intent.“He knew what he signed up for… but when it happens it hurts anyway.” – Trump’s remarks according to Congresswoman Frederica Wilson and the family of La David Johnson.
Unless you’ve chosen to ignore this story, by now you know that Congresswoman Frederica Wilson is a close family friend of Sgt. La David Johnson’s family. She’s known the family for quite some time… La David Johnson and his brothers were alum of her 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, a mentoring program she started in 1993 geared to help “minority male students graduate high school, go to college, vocational school or the military, and be positioned to become contributing and self-sustaining members of society.” She was also the principal of a school that La David Johnson’s father attended.
I don’t think anyone would blame the Congresswoman for “defending” the Johnson family, or speaking up if she felt they were slighted or disrespected in such a time of grief and anguish. But, the family should be her #1 priority. Considering Trump’s inability to take the high road in any situation, considering Trump blatantly disrespected a gold star family during his campaign, did the Congresswoman really think that publicly expressing her frustration with Trump’s remarks would render an immediate apology from him?
More importantly, did she think the inevitable media attention it would create would be in the best interest of the family or help them heal? If you believe so, then maybe she made the right decision. But if you don’t believe her immediate response of going to the media would be in the best interest of the family or help them heal, then maybe a different plan of action would’ve been better.
What should she have done?
She should’ve reached out to the President and the White House in private expressing her frustration, as well as relaying the pain his words caused the widow. It’s a snowball’s chance in hell it would’ve rendered a positive reaction or an apology; but, it wouldn’t have appeared to be political, and most importantly it would’ve allowed the family to mourn and grieve in peace without the media frenzy. If the President or a White House Offical chose to ignore her or not render a positive reaction or an apology, then going public with a statement would’ve probably been better received as less political, and truly genuine regarding her concern for the family.
It’s hard to give the Congresswoman the benefit of the doubt when it feels like she’s capitalizing on the moment especially when she’s calling herself a “rockstar” in the process.
With that being said, in such situations, we’d hope the president could take the high road and just render an apology. By doing so, he proves that he can show empathy, it makes the Congresswoman’s point irrelevant, and most importantly, it preserves the privacy of a family forced to mourn the loss of their hero.
Unlike the other 3 U.S. soldiers who were killed and retrieved when the other soldiers were rescued, La David Johnson was left behind and his body was retrieved a mile away and 48 hours later. The family was not allowed to I.D. the body and they had to have a closed casket funeral, which suggests that La David Johnson’s body was mutilated or in extremely bad condition when they found him.
They deserve answers… not sure receiving an apology or the current back and forth between a Democratic Congresswoman and the White House supersedes those answers and the speed in which they receive them.
(No Claps Yet)
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I think the congreewoman’s heart Was in the right place. She is well acquainted with this family. The emotions take over and words are spoken. It’s political because of the nature of her job, regardless it should be political. These are the people who keep us from and send us to war. It’s important for this to be public so that we know what kind of heart our President has and do kids think twice before signing up for Trump’s military. She wouldn’t be doing her job if she did it privately and we wouldn’t have known what happened. I’m neither a conservative or a liberal. I’m simply an American who wants to be informed.