Defensive answer

Trump's defensive answer turned a sad story into an ugly political one

Analysis by Z. Byron Wolf

Somehow, one defensive answer by the President at a news conference has turned into an ugly dispute over what he said to the grieving family of a fallen soldier.

It's a case study in how President Donald Trump's deflection on an issue and his unwillingness to back down on basically anything created a macabre news cycle and politicized the sacrifice of soldiers, who likely have no interest in being used this way. It's not the first time this has happened, although this time feels different since the family members are not willingly stepping into the spotlight to oppose Trump as Khizr Khan did at the Democratic convention in 2016.

This entire new storyline -- that the calling of Gold Star families by the commander in chief has somehow devolved into some sort of competition between presidents -- is distasteful, to say the least.

Heretofore, there has been one constant rule of Trump's political being: Barack Obama was wrong.

That's what makes Trump's defensive answer to CNN's question Monday about why he didn't call the families of fallen service members so odd.

In this case, Trump is defending himself because Obama did it, too.

We should point out here Trump was not asked about Obama when this issue of four US soldiers killed in Niger came up Monday. He was asked by CNN's Sara Murray why he hadn't mentioned the deaths of four American service members nearly two weeks after it happened. The circumstances around the deaths of the soldiers in Niger is under review and information about the deaths has become available slowly. Read Barbara Starr's reporting about the ongoing review of the attack and the investigation into what went so horribly wrong.

The deaths and his public silence were the context of Murray's question to Trump. Not whether he had called the families.

Kelly has been very quiet in public about his son and that should be respected. But it's clear that Kelly and Trump discussed whether Obama had called Kelly in the immediate aftermath of his son's death (the reporting suggests he did not).

For the record, we still don't know exactly why Trump didn't mention the US deaths in Niger before he was asked about them, although we have a good window into his thinking on how to deal with grieving families. It's hard, as it should be, to talk to people in grief. It must be harder still to be the commander in chief and talk to the widow or parent of a soldier you sent into battle.

We do know that his subsequent call to the family of Sgt. La David Johnson did not go well. Rep. Frederica Wilson overheard portions of the call when she was with Johnson's widow and has relayed those to CNN and other networks.

Trump vehemently disputed Wilson the morning after Wilson shared her account on CNN is sure to keep the story going. He won't back down.