Sarah Sanders: Trump stated ‘fact’ that former presidents didn’t call families of fallen soldiers

“The President wasn’t criticizing predecessors, but stating a fact,” Sanders said Monday in a statement. “When American heroes make the ultimate sacrifice, presidents pay their respects. Sometimes they call, sometimes they send a letter, other times they have the opportunity to meet family members in person. This President, like his predecessors, has done each of these. Individuals claiming former Presidents, such as their bosses, called each family of the fallen, are mistaken.”

Trump said he has sent letters to families of four soldiers killed in Niger earlier this month and intends to call their families, although he hasn’t done so yet. He added thatObama did not issue phone calls to families when service members were killed.

“I felt very, very badly about that. I always feel badly. It’s the toughest calls I have to make are the calls where this happens, soldiers are killed. It’s a very difficult thing,” Trump told reporters Monday. “It gets to a point where you make four or five of them in one day, it’s a very tough day and for me that’s by far the toughest. The traditional way if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls. A lot of them didn’t make calls.”

Trump said he had been informed Obama “didn’t often” call families and said former presidents wrote letters.

Former Obama staff members have come to the defense of their former boss. Obama’s former deputy chief of staff for operations denied the accusation.

“That’s a fucking lie,” Alyssa Mastromonaco tweeted. “To say President Obama (or past presidents) didn’t call the family members of soldiers KIA — he’s a deranged animal.”

Four U.S. Army Green Berets were killed in Niger during a joint reconnaissance patrol and came under fire.