In the latest installment of ‘What Despicable Thing Did Donald Trump Say Today?’, the president made the disgusting claim at a press conference on Monday that, unlike Barack Obama and other former presidents, Trump calls the family members of fallen U.S. soldiers to pay his respects.
“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 when asked about the four Green Berets killed earlier this month in Niger.
Despite the fact that this is an outright lie, the White House doubled down on it a short time ago:
JUST IN: @PressSec responds to criticism of Trump’s comments about past presidents’ lack of calls to families of the fallen. pic.twitter.com/ghnBbLjhK1
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— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) October 16, 2017
Not only did Obama call to pay his respects to the fallen when he was president, but he did it in person on numberous occasions.
Here is one of those occasions, shared by AM Joy contributor Scott Dworkin, when the former president flew to Delaware at midnight in 2009 to meet with family members and pay his respects to 18 soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
.@BarackObama flew to Delaware at midnight in 2009, met with families of & paid honor to the remains of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/kgTYytxrXj
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) October 16, 2017
It didn’t take long for those who worked in previous administrations – Democrat and Republican – to pounce on Trump’s comments.
According to CBS News, former deputy chief of staff for operations under Obama called Trump’s claim a “f—ing lie.”
“To say President Obama (or past presidents) didn’t call the family member of soldiers KIA (killed in action) – he’s a deranged animal,” she added, according to the report.
CBS News also received confirmation from aides who worked in both the Clinton and Bush White Houses that both presidents did, in fact, call family members of fallen soldiers.
It’s not surprising that Trump has once again chosen to tell a blatant lie about his predecessor, but it’s disgusting that this president has largely been silent about the four fallen U.S. soldiers in Niger – and when he did decide to talk about them, as he did today, he chose to make it all about himself by telling a blatant lie.
Just when we thought the bar couldn’t sink any lower for this president, Donald Trump rises to the occasion and proves us all wrong.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
