White House chief of staff John Kelly said Thursday he was “stunned” and “brokenhearted” after Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., divulged the details of President Trump’s phone call with the widow of one of the four U.S. Army soldiers killed in Niger.
“I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning and brokenhearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing,” Kelly told reporters of Wilson during the White House press briefing. “A member of Congress who listened in on a phone call from the president of the United States to a young wife, and in his way tried to express that opinion that he’s a brave man, a fallen hero. He knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted. There’s no reason to enlist. He enlisted, and 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.”
White House chief of staff John Kelly: “It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation.” pic.twitter.com/UFuXTlRZUt— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 19, 2017
“It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation,” Kelly continued. “Absolutely stuns me, and I thought, at least that was sacred.”
Related: John Kelly defends Trump’s outreach to Gold Star families in emotional press briefing
Watch John Kelly’s full remarks
Kelly said his reaction to Wilson’s actions this week were to try to collect his thoughts by walking through Arlington Cemetery, “among the finest men and women on this Earth.”
Wilson said Tuesday night Trump told Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, her husband “knew what he signed up for … but when it happens, it hurts anyway.”
Wilson proceeded to appear on several television shows throughout the day Wednesday to discuss the details of Trump’s conversation with Johnson, and her recollections of the phone call prompted the president to allege he had “proof” about the specifics of the conversation.
Kelly appeared at the White House press briefing Thursday to discuss the process by which families whose loved ones are killed while serving in the military are notified of their loss.
A former Marine Corps general, Kelly’s son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2010.
