Chief of Staff John Kelly Defends Trump's Phone Call, Opens Up about Son's Death
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is defending President Trump's phone call to the widow of Green Beret La David Johnson.
Sgt. Johnson was killed in an ISIS attack on U.S. forces in Niger.
It was an emotional debriefing as Kelly addressed a silent press corps.
He opened up about the loss of his own son, who was killed in 2010 when he stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan.
"In my son's case, in Afghanistan, when he died, he was surrounded by the best men on this earth, his friends," he said. "That's what the President tried to say to four families."
"There's nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families," he added.
Kelly said he advised the president to not make the call.
"There's no perfect way to make that phone call," he said. "When I took this job and talked to President Trump about how to do it, my first recommendation was he not do it. Because it's not the phone call that parents, family members are looking forward to."
However, when the President insisted on making the call, Kelly shared the same advice a military friend gave him after his son died.
"'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," he explained.
Kelly went on to call Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida an "empty barrel" who "makes noise," but he did not deny the lawmaker's account of the phone call.
"(It) stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation. Absolutely stuns me. And I thought at least that was sacred," Kelly remarked.
He even echoed the same words she credited to the president, saying La David knew what he was getting into.
"In his way he 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 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," Kelly said. "That was the message that was transmitted."
