White House: No transcript of Trump’s call to military widow

The White House said Friday that there is no transcript of President Trump’s call with the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, one of the four soldiers killed during an ambush in Niger earlier this month.

Trump’s top spokeswoman was asked about a possible transcript after the issue was raised in an interview with the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump.

“There’s not a transcript of the call,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters during the White House press briefing.

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“I believe she was responding to reports and things she read. I haven’t spoken directly to her. I refer you to the campaign that handles her press inquiries,” Sanders added.

Lara Trump was asked during an interview aired Friday on “Fox and Friends” about a “transcript” of the disputed call.

“Your dad tweeted that he had proof. You read the transcript. What were your thoughts?” host Ainsley Earhardt asked the president’s daughter-in-law. 

“Well, from what I’ve seen, this is just a clear case of the media not doing their job. Whenever you read exactly what he said, he said your husband went into battle, you know, knowing that he could be injured, knowing that he could be killed, and he still did it because he loved his country and did it for the American people,” Lara Trump responded.

“I can’t think of a better way, quite frankly, to have expressed my gratitude to someone by saying something like that. And yet they conveniently leave off the last part of what was said,” she added.

The White House spent several days this week responding to questions about the call to Johnson’s widow after a Democratic lawmaker said Trump was insensitive during the conversation.

Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), who was present with the widow for the call, said Trump told Johnson’s widow that the fallen soldier “knew what he signed up for … but when it happens it hurts anyway.”

Trump shot back at Wilson, saying she had fabricated the account and he had “proof” he did not say that, though Wilson stood by her account of the call, along with members of Johnson’s family.

White House chief of staff John Kelly did not dispute the comment attributed to Trump during his appearance at the White House press briefing on Thursday, though he defended Trump’s handling of the call.