The grieving aunt of slain US Special Forces hero Sgt. La David Johnson wept as she told DailyMailTV on Friday: ‘Our president is an S.O.B.’
Katrina Johnson, 42, wiped away tears as she paid tribute to Sergeant La David Johnson, the 25-year-old Ranger whose
Trump has denied reducing pregnant mother-of-two Myeshia Johnson to tears by saying her husband ‘knew what he signed up for’ during a telephone call to offer his condolences.
But Katrina Johnson, 42, believes her family’s account of the conversation and says Trump’s supposed comments are a grave insult to her patriot nephew.
‘We hurt,’ she told DailyMailTV.
‘My family was in a car on the way to the airport to pick up his body and the words he told to a grieving widow were wrong.’
The grieving aunt of slain US Special Forces hero Sgt. La David Johnson has branded President Trump’s alleged remarks to his widow as ‘heartless and disgusting’
Katrina Johnson, 42, believes her family’s account of the conversation with the president and says Trump’s supposed comments are a grave insult to her patriot nephew
‘La David was a hero who died fighting for this country. He loved doing what he was doing. He sure as hell didn’t sign up to be disrespected,’ Johnsonsaid in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com. She is pictured outside of her home with her daughter Carlita
She added: ‘The hardest part… is not being able to see him any more, not watching him becoming the man he had become.
‘He’s got a son and a daughter that he won’t watch grow up. It’s heartbreaking for all of us.
‘ He was a leader, a hero, a lovable person. He died doing what he wanted to do.’
And as DailyMailTV host Jesse Walters thanked her for coming on the show she said: ‘I want you to know that our president is an S.O.B.’
Sgt. Johnson, 25, and three other Green Berets were killed October 4 by Islamist militants while on patrol in the African nation of Niger.
Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, Sgt. Bryan Black, and Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson were also killed by the fanatics, thought to be linked to ISIS.
Trump denied making the insensitive remark, tweeting on Wednesday that the congresswoman ‘totally fabricated’ it and later calling Congresswoman Frederica
Myeshia Johnson, who is expecting the couple’s third baby in January, later sobbed as she leaned over her husband’s coffin
Trump’s reported remarks were shared by Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson, who said she was listening in on speakerphone when Myeshia took the President’s call on Tuesday while driving to Miami International Airport to meet his repatriated body.
Heartbreaking footage later showed the 25-year-old widow, who is expecting the couple’s third baby in January, sobbing as she leaned over her husband’s flag-draped coffin.
Sgt. La David Johnson, 25, was among the four US troops who were killed in Niger nearly two weeks ago during an ambush
Trump insisted Wednesday that the quote attributed to him was entirely made up, claiming they had ‘a very nice conversation’ and that he had ‘proof’ that claims to the contrary were false.
Cowanda Jones-Johnson, a different aunt who raised Johnson as her son after the death of his biological mother and who was also sat in the car during the conversation, backed the congresswoman’s recollection of the call.
‘I was in the car and I heard the full conversation,’ the 42-year-old told the Associated Press.
The row became politically explosive on Thursday as Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly held an unscheduled press conference on Thursday – and related his own experience as a Gold Star father whose Marine officer son died in Action in Afghanistan.
He called Frederica Wilson, the Congresswoman who revealed parts of the phonecall ‘selfish’ and suggested she was an ’empty barrel’ who had abused a ‘sacred’ trust.
On Thursday night Trump used Twitter to call Wilson – who always sports cowboy hates despite representing an urban area in Florida – ‘wacky’ and a liar.
But Wilson hit back Friday morning, calling Kelly – a former four-star general – a liar and a racist for criticizing her.
Wilson spoke out despite claiming she would say no more because she wanted the focus to be on Johnson.
The Johnson family will gather to lay the hero to rest in Miami on Saturday.
Jones-Johnson’s husband Richard Johnson, 43, who is Sgt. Johnson’s uncle, took the young boy in and raised him when his mother Samara Johnson died in 1999 from tuberculosis.
‘His real daddy wasn’t really around. He saw him from time to time but Richard was the father figure in his life,’ Katrina Johnson explained.
‘Samara passed on September 29, 1999 from tuberculosis. I think it was airborne, she used to clean planes and we think she got it off someone flying in to the country.
‘She stopped taking her medication because she said it just made her more sick.
‘It hurt La David but he kept going. He had a good upbringing. He played football, he finished school.
‘He would say ‘”‘I wish my mom was here” but he had enough support around him to become the man that he was.’
Johnson said her nephew tinkered with cars and radios as a teenage boy and loved to cook.
He had three sisters, two older brothers, and his first job was on the produce counter at Walmart.
Trump has denied reducing pregnant mother-of-two Myeshia Johnson to tears by saying her husband ‘knew what he signed up for’ during a telephone call to offer his condolences. Mysheia and La David are pictured together in a family photo
Johnson’s mother died in 1999 from a case of Tuberculosis. He is pictured, right and center, with his cousin James Johnson and grandmother Joann Johnson when he was just two in family photos given to Daily Mail Online
The late Army Sgt. La David Johnson is pictured with his mother Cowanda Jones-Johnson, who is backing up Rep. Frederica Wilson’s account of a condolence call in which Donald Trump told her the slain solider ‘knew what he signed up for’
Johnson said that Myeshia ‘meant everything’ to her nephew. ‘They met at school. He got really into her when he was in his teenage years but he had liked her since he was six years old,’ she told Daily Mail Online
She said Sgt. Johnson achieved strong enough grades to get into a good college but decided to enter the military instead after graduating from high school.
Johnson said La David was idolized by his 25 cousins, including her three children, James Johnson, 25, 16-year-old Carlton Smith and daughter Carltia smith, 15.
‘If La David could help you he would help you. He never got in trouble, none of that stuff,’ she added.
‘He didn’t start with much in life but he rose above it all to turn the sadness into positivity. All his cousins looked up to him.
‘Carlton wanted to be just like him and join the military too but I think he’ll change his mind now – because of what Donald Trump has said.’
Johnson said the last time she saw her nephew was on the stoop of her Miami home when he visited her several months ago on the eve of his deployment in Niger.
He told her he hoped to start a new business, perhaps a barber’s shop or a restaurant, and spend more time with pregnant Myeshia and their kids, two-year-old La David Jnr and Ally, six, when he returned.
‘I told him I loved him, he was talking about the Army, the sort of guns he had. He wanted to come home and start a barber’s shop. He loved cutting hair and cooking,’ said Johnson.
‘Myeshia meant everything to him. They met at school. He got really into her when he was in his teenage years but he had liked her since he was six years old.
‘Their children are lovable, always smiling. A lot of people don’t grow up without their father and mother but as long as they keep his memory alive he didn’t die for nothing.’
Johnson said her nephew never elaborated on his mission to Niger and that nobody has explained to her exactly what he was doing there
Katrina Johnson said about her nephew: ‘That was my baby – my heart and soul. I’m so proud of him’
Sgt. Johnson and his fallen comrades where in unarmored trucks with Nigerian troops when they were ambushed and killed.
Johnson said her nephew never elaborated on his mission to Niger and that nobody has explained to her exactly what he was doing there.
She added, fighting back tears: ‘That was my baby – my heart and soul. I’m so proud of him.
‘He’s got cousins, he’s got babies that are never gonna see him. His momma would have been so proud of him if she was alive today.’
Sgt. Johnson’s sister-in-law Antoinette Manuel told DailyMail.com the US military had instructed her family not to speak with the media.
‘I’m sorry, I have to talk to my sister. We can’t talk about it yet. None of the family can,’ Manuel, 28, said outside her family’s home in Miami Gardens, Florida.
The President has yet to reveal the ‘proof’ he says will vindicate him and a White House spokesperson did not respond to a question Wednesday about what his evidence consisted of.