White House chief of staff John Kelly offered a solemn defense on Thursday of President Trump’s outreach to the families of fallen soldiers while offering a detailed explanation of what happens to military service members after they die in combat.
“There’s no perfect way to make that phone call. When I took this job and talked to President Trump about how to do it, my first recommendation was to not do it, because it’s not the phone call that parents, family members are looking forward to,” Kelly told reporters at the White House.
Kelly’s comments came days after Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., accused Trump of upsetting the widow of an Army sergeant who was killed in an attack in Niger on Oct. 4. She said Trump told the widow that her husband “knew what he was getting into,” and said it was insensitive.
Watch John Kelly’s full remarks
Trump has denied saying anything insensitive, and Kelly indicated to reporters Thursday that he proposed that kind of language, and that it was based on what he was told after his own son was killed in Afghanistan.
“I said to him, ‘Sir, there’s nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families.’ But let me tell you what I tell them. Let me tell you what my best friend, Joe Dunford, told me, because he was my casualty officer,'” Kelly said of his conversation with Trump.
“He said, ‘Kel, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into by joining that one percent. He knew what the possibilities were, because we’re at war,'” Kelly said.
“And when he died, in the four cases we’re talking about in Niger and my son’s case in Afghanistan, when he died, he was surrounded by the best men on this Earth, his friends,” he added. “That’s what the president tried to say to four families the other day.”
Kelly also unloaded on Wilson and said he couldn’t believe she was allowed to overhear Trump’s conversation.
“It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation,” Kelly said. “I thought, at least, that was sacred.”
Kelly said he journeyed to nearby Arlington Cemetery after listening to Wilson politicize Trump’s call to the Gold Star family, in order to collect his thoughts.
He noted former President Barack Obama had not called him after his own son was killed in Afghanistan, as the White House said earlier this week.
“That was not a criticism … that’s not a negative thing,” Kelly said.”I don’t believe President [George W.] Bush called, in all cases.”
