The women of the Congressional Black Caucus on Sunday called on White House chief of staff John Kelly to apologize for his “reprehensible” remarks about Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson (D), in which he accused her of bragging about securing funding at a building dedication honoring slain FBI agents.
“We, the women of the Congressional Black Caucus, proudly stand with Congresswoman Wilson and demand that General Kelly apologize to her without delay and take responsibility for his reckless and false statements,” the female lawmakers said in a statement.
{mosads}Their calls for an apology come after Kelly claimed on Thursday that Wilson had boasted in 2015 about raising millions in funding for the bureau’s Miami field office.
A video published Friday by the Sun Sentinel of south Florida, however, showed the Democratic lawmaker talking about pushing through the legislation that named the building in honor of the two fallen agents, with no mention of securing finances for it.
“A congresswoman stood up, and in a long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there in all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money, and she just called up President Obama, and on that phone call, he gave the money — the $20 million — to build the building, and she sat down, and we were stunned,” Kelly told reporters Thursday.
Wilson shot back that the building had been funded “long before I got to Congress,” while calling Kelly’s accusations “crazy.”
“Congresswoman Wilson’s integrity and credibility should not be challenged or undermined by such blatant lies,” their statement continued. “We were appalled by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly’s statements where he called Congresswoman Wilson an ‘empty barrel’ and accused her of taking credit for securing funding for a new FBI Building in Miramar, Florida that was named after two fallen FBI agents, Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove.”
“A video of Congresswoman Wilson’s comments on that day has been released, and it provides indisputable proof that she never made any of the statements of which General Kelly falsely accused her,” they continued, while praising her for her record of demonstrating “competent leadership on a number of important issues.”
At least 17 female caucus members signed their names on the statement including Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).
The ordeal comes after Wilson and the White House have been locked in a feud this week over President Trump’s handling of a call to a fallen soldier’s family.