my ci can worry about it,ine. or do something about it. garlique® helps maintain healthy cholesterol naturally. and it's odor free. and pharmacist recommended. garlique.® he said, well, i guess he knew what he was getting into. >> i'm sick is and tired of trying to figure out where the bottom is for donald trump. >> at times like this, words matter. compassion matters. >> people are trying to turn it politically and i don't think that's right. >> he doesn't have the right to

challenge mccain on patriotism. it's just common decency. >> we were able to find common ground. >> i'm pleased the democrats have finally responded to my call for them to take responsibility. >> we haven't had a chance to think about the way forward yet. >> this deal will not work if the president continues his campaign of sabotage. this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to your "new day". we start with the president's call to the widow of sergeant la david johnson. a congresswoman listening in said, well, i guess he knew what he signed up for but i guess it still hurt. the congresswoman joins us with her account of that call. >> remember what started all of this. this is part of the distraction from the ambush in niger. he had 12 days. he didn't say anything about it. he was talking a lot about it.

now these deaths are being politicized. the president is talking about what past president versus done and talking about husband own chief of staff's fallen son and making him part of the spotlight. meantime, the president is intensifying his feud with another war here roerbgs senator john mccain. the man is battling cancer right now and the president warned him, i will come back at you. let's begin with know johns live at the white house. you can't make it up. >> that's for sure, chris. this was a sensitive and is sad national conversation. we entered calls into the families of the fallen u.s. military personnel. the question is how often presidents have made the calls. now the question is about the content of the information, what's appropriate for the president to say in the situation and what should be left unsaid. >> basically he said, well, i

guess he knew what he signed up for. but i guess it still hurts. >> democratic congressman frederica wilson recounting a conversation shez s said she overheard between the widow of sergeant la david johnson and the president. >> there is no reason for the president to be so insensitive. >> reporter: he was killed two weeks ago in niger. the plane receiving a water cannon salute as it arrived near the gate. his widow hugging her husband's flag-draped casket along with her 6-year-old daughter in this heartbreaking video. congresswoman wilson said president trump called minutes before while the family was on their way to the airport. >> i was livid. i asked them to give me the phone because i wanted to speak with him, and i was going to curse him out.

>> reporter: when asked for comment by cnn, the white house did not deny the comment saying only, the president's conversations with the families of american heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private." this conversation coming hours after the president used the death of the son of his chief on of staff john kelly, a marine, to bolster his false claim that his predecessor did not call the families of fallen members of the armed forces. >> i think i've called every family of service members who died. as far as other representatives, i don't know. but you can ask general kelly did he get a call from obama. >> reporter: general kelly said little in public about his son's death and asked specifically for his son not to be mentioned before a 2010 commemoration of two other marines killed in bat. according to multiple reports. kelly's son had been killed just days prior. the white house declined to make general kelly available for

comment and he did not appear about the president as two key events tuesday. records show that kelly and his wife were invited by the obamas to a white house breakfast for gold star families in 2011, but it's unclear if they attended. meanwhile, president trump intensifying his ongoing feud with war hero senator john mccain, blasting the arizona senator for repudiating his nationalist world view. >> people have to be careful. at some point i fight back. i'm being very nice. i'm being very, very nice. but at some point i fight back, and it won't be nice. it won't be president. >> reporter: senator mccain said he has faced far bigger challenges than president trump. that clearing the way for the senate budget resolution to advance for vote. the attention turning quickly to the president's tax plan. the senate finance committee

expected to meet with the president in the oval office. that's his only scheduled public appearance. back to you. >> joe, thank you very much. joining us now is cnn political analyst gregory and ron brownstein. gregory, this is a unique combination of somewhat common traits that we are seeing playwright now. the president has not showed a ton of empathy. and he will say anything he needs to do to distract from a situation. and it seems like all of them are at playwright here. but this report from this congress woman, if it's true, it really shows he does not have a feel for this job yet. >> that's right. the comments have been reported out to her to this widow of a fallen soldier seemed insensitiving awkward, not the kind of thing that you want to say to someone who is grieving. again, i'd be curious to see if

that's exactly how the conversation happened. this is a president who is not naturally empathetic. who, when corner, or when he ser saoefs he's corn said, he lies. he doesn't act in ways that are in keeping with the dignity on of the presidency. to not show deference to your predecessors that is so sensitive to comfort the families of fallen soldiers, who you put into harm's way as commander in chief is something that is not excusable and teams to a mind-set, impulsivity that is disturbing when you think about other big decisions that have to be made. all the while we're having this conversation this morning, the president is on twitter yet again lashing out about the comey letter and hillary clinton and the investigation into the leaks. and even calling out his own justice department saying where is the justice department. it shows there are no guard rails on this president despite efforts by his chief of staff

and others to try. >> and he wants to get us off of this. >> right. >> the same way he wanted to get us off the ambush by putting off the past presidents. he knows what he's doing. now whether or not it's effective. >> chris, you're right. we have seen the the way he approaches the job. it is is a refusal to take personal responsibility. he knew, the soldier knew what he was signing up for. what he was signing up for may or may not have been included proper planning and execution of this raid. ultimately there is a political responsibility here for the house of representatives and the senate to do their job, which is oversight of the executive branch and the underlying questions of what exactly happened here. we pursued that in benghazi. the feud, attacks, spat that we

heard in joe's report, it is so systematic it is not random. the president sees the value in having personal conflicts with other political figures. there's a cost to that. there is a sense that a majority of americans he does not have the temperament of the job. he sees this perpetual conversations that he is tackling the old boys club, breaking status quo and someone who is not going along with business as usual. and he is putting us on a hamster wheel in the media of constantly running down these easily disproved accusations only to see him begin, as david said, with the tweets this morning, another round of confrontations with an endlessly shifting set of targets. >> back to the comments made to the grieving widow. a lot of people struggle with what to say in the moments of grief. the president himself acknowledged these calls are

hard for him. that's what he said. he feels awkward, clearly, about them. i think part of the issue is it seems to be part of a pattern. that when talking about military sacrifice, he struggles in a very tone deaf way. we have seen it happen with john mccain. we saw it at the cia right after his inauguration. let's just remind people of the way he has spoken in front of people who have sacrificed. >> he's not a war hero. >> he is a war hero. >> five and a half years. >> he's a war hero because he was captured. i like people who weren't captured, i hate to tell you. >> what sacrifice have you made for your country? >> i think i have made a lot of sacrifices. i worked very, very hard. i created thousands and thousands of jobs -- tens of thousands of jobs. built great structures. i've done -- i've had tremendous

success. >> those are sacrifices in. >> oh, sure, i think they're sacrifices. >> we had a massive field of people. you saw them. packed. i get up this morning is and i turn on one of the networks and they show an empty field. i said, waeupl, i made a speech. i looked out, the field was -- the looked like a million, million and a half people. >> that last one, david, just remind everybody that was at the cia in front of the wall of agents who had fallen and sacrificed their lives for the country. >> yeah. i mean, in some cases it's just nastiness on his part. >> it's not a struggle. it is a choice to be insensitive. >> he seeks the light in a way that it doesn't matter what it's for. whether he's being nasty, whether he's being disrespectful, whether he's lacking empathy. whatever keeps him at the center of the storm is what he likes. he thinks that's where he does his best work. here's what this president

willfully disregards, not that he is not a good model for our children, although that is not a small thing. in my household, we respect any president no matter who or what party they're from. my children understand as a matter of course this is not a model for good behavior. that is sad. beyond that, american citizens, our president should be a model for empathy when appropriate to reflect the pain of the country, the danger, the frustration, all of those things. this is something he willfully disregards as part of his job. lots of flawed human beings have been president of the united states. he seems not to care about them. >> real quick, he's hitting on the right point, the dignity of the office. but i think one of the reasons president trump falls on that is because he does not really see his job as speak for the country. he sees it speaking for his

faction of the country. there has been no effort to be president of the entire country or to really kind of bring in is and make feel welcome those who did not vote for him. as i say, i go back to this. we have seen the wheel turn so relentlessly, so perpetually, how many days a week are retalking about some new personal conflict that clearly there is a method here. it may be madness in that 60% of americans question whether he has the temperament for the job. but he has the way to tell his base there are no sacred cows. he will challenge anyone, even challenge john mccain's war service. and he sees a value in that. by the way, the senate republicans are about to pass a budget resolution and envision giant cuts that he promised his older white base that he would protect to for the top 1%. we are not there as well.

there is a method here. there's a cost to it, but there is a method. >> and if you would imagine his ardent supporters, conservatives, populists, wherever they find themselves on the map, imagine the outrage toward a democratic president who would speak this way about john mccain or handle the military this way. >> thank you both very much. so coming up in just minutes, we will speak live with that congresswoman, frederica wilson, about that phone call between president trump and the soldier's widow. >> also coming up, we have key gop leaders that are pushing congressional committees when it comes to the russia investigations. what they are telling committee members to do next. your insurance company

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cnn's man mu raju live on capitol hill with this new cnn reporting. tell us about it. >> good morning, chris. yeah, there is growing tension on the hill over the russia investigation. key republicans on some of these committees are telling their leaders it is time to end the inquiries by year's end. one top republican jim ri is sh said the committee should not be chasing weak leads. other republicans say democrats are trying to keep this hanging into the election season. democrats like adam schiff are worried the gop is not aggressively pursuing the potential of collusion with the trump campaign, saying they have rush said witnesses into the committee before they have received relevant documents. we are told one example of that is jared kushner, who is a president's son-in-law. they would to interior view donald trump jr. the chairman of the judiciary

committee has faced growing pressure from democrats to hold a public hearing for trump junior. he signaled that his previous comments that he couldn't avoid a public hearing still stood. >> really all of this points to the challenges that lawmakers face in trying to reach any kind of bipartisan consensus on the findings of exactly what happened in last year's elections. alisyn. >> manu, thank you very much. we want to discuss it with bill critical, editor of "weekly standard." and president on the eagle forum

fund. let's start with manu's reporting. i don't know if they are experiencing investigation fatigue or if they think there is no there there. they are push to go wrap up by the end of the year. how do you see this? >> they need to wrap up january 31st or february 1st. it will get wrapped up in the election year. >> a few more months? >> yeah. more importantly the pweugz investigation is bob mueller. that is getting close to the end. you have to talk to the president, the vice president. that will happen within a month or two. people have a sense that these investigations go on forever. they do a little bit. i would think by february we will know both. it is important to mueller. >> how can they wrap up before

they have their findings? >> they have to do what they're set out to do. if they're working, we haven't seen it. we hear about spicer. we're speculating he was brought in to talk about his role in the white house. he was on the campaign. so we don't really know yet. my concern with all of these investigations is they're in search of a justification. at a certain point it will take a lot of courage i think, i suspect, someone to say there wasn't anything here on the collusion. what we're going to get to, the problem is i call mueller the zombie inspect counsel. zombie counsel. he's going to find something to devour and keep going. he's looking at kushner's business haoelgs. it is is a witch-hunt in search of a witch. >> it is all going to be public. if it's not legitimate, you and the president would say so.

i wouldn't characterize them as being on the witch-hunt. >> i'm narrowing the description by the media into what they're doing. >> what about obstruction of justice? is that okay with you. >> it depends what it is. you worked in the white house. going through the white house on everything everywhere you will find lots of conduct. it's a way to tie up the president. >> it is not being tied up. it is being done with great discretion. they're not leaking. they're doing their job. >> they're not leak something. >> you think mueller's office is leak something. >> i think everybody is leaking. >> this is fake. >> what is? >> it's tying things up, distracting us. in what way is the president distracted by this? >> when lawyers get an assignment on a matter, bill, they decide they are going to expand to this. you are one of the great proponents of limiting the bureaucrat's role. >> you are saying it is is a phishing expedition. >> every lawyer --

>> but you don't know that. >> neither does anyone. >> so let's not speculate that the former director of the fbi is engaged in what you just called a witch-hunt. >> how about we don't speculate on the president on obstructing justice. >> i didn't speculate. i would like to know what he had with this one on one dinner with comey. >> who does he work for? >> the president of the united states. he does not work personally for donald trump. >> nobody said he did. >> so you know what, if trump behaved appropriately, nothing to fear. he has nothing to fear. >> we have a constitution -- >> what does he have to fear? >> we have a constitution that governs how people do their jobs. that is the law, bill. >> i am for the rule of law. >> because of how he responds to things, let's step away from the president's response to military sacrifice. today there is a question about

his widow. he said something like, well, i guess he knew what he signed up for but i guess it still hurts. >> can i tell you what this -- and bill will not agree, i can tell already. here's what goes on when you work for a governor. lots of meetings, lots of people speaking. if you look up heritage foundation speech, trump describes a conversation with a cop in las vegas who says this is what i signed up for. i run to defend good and to stop evil. and when you hear the president say to a dying -- to a widow something about -- it's actually -- it's such a slur on trump, president trump. he actually was saying something nice. what is it about men like that guy who died that they run towards the bullets? and it's because even though he knew that could happen he signed up. the idea that they take the snippet and runs with it, it is really, really respectful.

>> it is important to hear your perspective. look, she was in the car. she heard the tone. that's how she interpreted it. but you hear it differently. >> look, i'm not -- these are hard to do. i'm not going to criticize the president for a poor choice of words. it is unfortunate. george w. bush describes movingly widows getting angry at him. he just took it. what he said yesterday or two days ago and the dragging into this of robert kelly. >> let's talk about that. >> i really can't stomach that. i can't believe we're having this where he could have answered in four sentences, saying we all grieve for them. we have the greatest respect for our soldiers and he intends as president to make sure we all honor them. that's it. period. he didn't have to mention obama, all his predecessors. and then the next day to defend himself, to drag out robert kelly, i find that really -- >> how about that?

look, general john kelly does seem to be an innocent by stander in all of this drama. he studiously avoided the spotlight in terms of his own grief and son's sacrifice. he is being talked about by the president. >> general kelly gave that speech. >> everyone should read it. four days after his son was killed. he doesn't mention his son. it was about sacrifice. >> it is is a stirring example how you deal with it. we are in tough tower tore how to deal with it. ultimately general kelly is a big boy. he knows how to deal with it. i respect his way of even now staying silent. >> the president just tweeted moments ago about this very thing. he said democrat congresswoman totally fabricated what i said to the wife of a soldier who died action and i have proof.

sad. we look forward to that. we're in the proof business. we're in the evidence business. >> this is really terrible that we're having this -- honestly. just talking to a widow. >> but the congresswoman wasn't well suited to go and make a big deal out of all of this. >> look, these were private moments, right? these were the toughest moments. for whatever reason the congresswoman felt so affronted that she asked to get on the phone so she could curse him out. if the president said he has proof of something different, we welcome that. and whether or not the president is equipped to deal with the military sacrifice. sit part of a pattern. this isn't the first time we heard him say something that has seemed off. >> i just want to say this. he is the president. if he's not going to to frankly, we should just accept the fact

that -- what are we going to do? the soldiers and marines have to fight our country. the country honors them. whether he phrases it well or not frankly doesn't matter. >> lots of examples of people who meet the president who say they are very moved. i forget if it was las vegas. she said i wasn't for him but he wasn't like i thought he was. and this president is the first president living in, maybe by choice, in the twitter world. where it is everything in real-time. >> embracing it. >> as bill said, you're going to be good at some, bad at some. i think this congresswoman overhearing it is such a hard thing to judge how poorly or how well anyone takes it. >> we will get her take coming up. thank you very much. let's get over to chris. >> let's bring in the democrat from oregon there's a lot to talk about in terms of the budget and what we're dealing with this situation around niger. i know you're looking at what happened in the ambush.

we're hearing that the pentagon is working on a tomb line. it is not clear if this is something they're initiating now. what is your accepts of where we are in understanding what happened with this loss of american life? >> well, i don't have a lot new to share with you. it is a very important thing to get to the bottom of how this unfolded, the type of preparation involved. obviously a very, very tragic day for our military. >> should the president have said something about it before now? >> well, i would certainly have expected him to address something of this size that occurred. and basically say we're going to do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen again. but we have heard so little on this topic. >> this back and forth with the democratic congresswoman and the president, he says he has proof

that she is fabricating what he said to the widow. what's your take on that? >> i feel like this shows how we're just trapped in this "game of thrones" moment about different people saying different things. it is incredibly hard to speak to a family who lost their son or daughter. i have to close the door. i have to prepare myself emotionally. and i find sometimes parents and spouses want to talk at length, want to share some of the background of their loved one. other times they are beyond words. but they appreciate that i called. it's just very tough. it's -- let's focus on the big challenges in the world rather than the president's phone call. >> well, we try to do that. sometimes how you do the job of president matters. you say, hey, a lot of other presidents don't call or do

anything. and it's just not true. >> it is one more sign of the incredible emotional immaturity of this president. i have come to accept that he's trapped in a childhood emotional state and i just hope we can get through the next few years. >> well, let's talk about how you'll do exactly that. what do you make of the vote to be able to debate the budget proposition which will probably lead to a discussion of the tax cuts that the republicans are offering up? are you okay with having this debate? >> well, i'm fine having the debate. that's the way the senate works. the senate needs to have more real debates on the floor. at the heart of this entire budget is essentially about a massive tax cut to the richest americans. the president needs to explain and the republican leadership needs to explain how can you say you will have reductions for the middleclass and 80% of the benefits are going to go to the

top 1% of americans. if you're going to do it for the middleclass, shouldn't 80% go to the middleclass? >> when it comes to tax revenue, that top tier pays overwhelming majority. if you want to stimulate through tax cut. we're on not getting into that today. if you want to stimulate through tax cut you should do it because they are the ones paying the taxes. >> one tenth of 1% of americans owns basic live as much as the bottom 90% of america, of course they will pay more taxes. it's a phony point. >> the health care proposal for lamar alexander and patty murray. are you okay with their bill? essentially it would put back in

cost-sharing revenues that the president wrote out of the health care law. and also give flexibility to states. >> yes. you have gotten right to the heart of it. cost-sharing reduce the o out-of-pocket expenses for those who have 250% or less than poverty. that is certainly appropriate. what's really important is you have democrats and republicans coming together in the health committee bringing the experts to say what can we improve and getting a set of things they can agree on. i would like to see, for example, the president still has the ability to shorten the period for signing up. he still has the ability to do these low hft cost plans for associations that may well be a complete scam for americans and undermine the exchange.

but getting them to the floor, that's a great model the question is will they get to the floor. >> we will have to see. while they will get a vote on the tax bill it seems with the reconciliation, the 50 plus vote, we don't know if you get a vote on on the alexander murray. but we have to look at flexibility means. we will debate that deeper into the details. thank you for being with us, as always. >> thank you. president trump is responding to the controversy involving his call to the widow of one of the fallen u.s. soldiers killed in niger. democrat congresswoman totally indicated what i said to the wife of a soldier who died in action, and i have proof. sad. that congresswoman frederica wilson joins us now. good morning, congresswoman. >> good morning. >> i know this is the first time that you are hearing the president's tweet read to you. so when he says that you totally

fabricated what he said to the wife of the soldier and he has proof, what's your response? >> well, i don't know what kind of proof he could be talking about. i'm not the only person that was in the car. and i have proof too. this man is a sick man. he's cold hearted and he feels no pity or sympathy for anyone. this is a grieving widow, a grieving widow who is six months prosecuting. this is a young woman. she's only 24 years old. she weighs maybe 110 pounds. and she has two other kids. 2 years old and 6 years old. when she actually hung up the phone and she looked at me and said he didn't even know his name. now, that's the worst part. >> let's talk about that. what did you hear? tell us about this phone call. >> well, i didn't hear the whole phone call, but i did hear him say i'm sure he knew what he was

signing up for, but it still hurts. and i asked them to let me speak with them. and master sergeant said, no, you can't speak with him. and i said, but i want to speak with him because i was livid when i heard that. and i was livid because this is a young man who i reared in my community of miami gardens. he came through my mentoring program. his father was a student at my elementary school. i was his principal. so i know them. and for him to say that this young man stayed in school, did all the right things, went into the service, bomb a sergeant and so quickly that he signed up for his own death? that is so insensitive. >> so that's how you interpreted it. you interpreted it as the president saying something callous in that way. obviously it can be heard lots

of different ways. it could be heard as the president trying to find some point of understanding to speak out to the widow. how did she hear it? >> she was crying. she broke down. and she said he didn't even know his name. >> did you hear that part? did you hear the part where it left the impression that he didn't know his name? >> she heard the part that he didn't know his name. and i don't think we should be trying to go into all of this. what the concern is, we have a soldier who died from miami gardens. and there are so many circumstances surrounding his death that i still have questions about. representative hastings and i wrote a letter to the state department and to mr. mattis asking about this. why was he separated?

we want an investigation. because we have lots of boys in our community who we lose violently. this is a young man who we reared to be a hero. he did all the right things. he went to school. he finished school. he got married. he has two children. he has a pregnant wife. he's a good man. and he lost his life for our nation and for our country. that's what we should be talking about. and this is what we should be celebrating. not that this is what he signed up to be. >> yeah. >> that is sarcasm. that is insensitive. we have to hold our hands around this family. is and right now we're trying to raise money to send his two children is and his yet unborn daughter to college. so la david johnson scholarship fund on go fund me.

>> so congresswoman, a couple of things, about all the questions you have, about how he got separated, how sergeant johnson got separated from the other soldiers about why his body was left behind for those days, about his closed casket, did the president address any on of those things on the phone call? >> no, he did not. and when i first heard that he was going to call i said to the master sergeant, i would like to speak to him. because i was going to ask him that. some of those questions. because i'm really concerned. because when i asked the authorities in d.c., they tell me when i go back i will have a classified briefing. but i didn't want to wait. and i was going to just say to the president how vicious boca

that ram b pwoebg that ram is. they are misplacing millions of people across that region. and it's africans killing africans. and ever since they kidnapped the school girls from nigeria i have been on this case. #bringbackourgirls. i traveled to that region. and to have my own child, my mentee who i reared from a young man to go and be killed, i'm devastated. >> is it your impression from what you heard from the pentagon or just in congress that on this mission did the soldiers have the necessary cover for the mission they were on? >> it doesn't seem as if they had sufficient cover. it doesn't seem they had sufficient vehicles, the appropriate armored cars. it seems as if they were

outnumbered. it seems as if he was missing for 24 hours. but his transmitter was still beeping. and it seems as if they could have found him. this may wind up to be mr. trump's benghazi. so he needs to investigate this very, very closely. because i will be making sure that congress does that. >> how is mrs. johnson doing? >> she is so weak. and she is trying so hard. she's trying hard for her little ones. but you can imagine her heart is paining because this is her husband who she is looking forward to a long life with, raising their children. and now he's gone. but he died as a hero. and the people of miami gardens are very, very proud of him. his family is very, very proud of him. and the scholarship fund is

trending. so we're doing as much as we can. we're showing them so much love. so much compassion. >> congresswoman, listen, there's been so much criticism the last day of how the president has handled all this and people have accused him of politicizing this issue, pwrupging in germ john kelly's son into the issue. do you feel as though you are politicizing this issue by publicizing a private conversation between the president and this widow. >> when i got out of the car, someone asked me a question and i answered the question. i was done. i'm concerned about why he died, why wasn't he protected, why was he left 24 hours without nip

finding him. was he captured? was he murdered? what happened to him? that's what i'm concerned about. >> yeah. when the president tweeted that you've totally fabricated this conversation with the wife of a soldier that died and that he has proof, perhaps this phone call was taped on his end? what is your proof? >> i'm not trying to prove anything with the president. so the president evidently is lying. because what i said is true. i have no reason to lie on the president of the united states. with a dead soldier in my community. i have no time. i have no motive. i see him as ned in the first grade reader trying to find something to do and he has a lot to do. we are almost at war with north

korea. we're dealing with iran. and he needs to learn from past presidents like president obama and be presidential during times like this. someone needs to train him and teach him what to say. maybe they can write a script for him and he can just call and say you have my sympathy. i'm sending you a letter. >> congresswoman, you asked to be put on the phone with the president after what you heard the portion of the phone call that you heard. what were you going to say to him if you had been put on the phone? >> you know what, i think i was going to curse him out. >> and what were you going to say? you don't have to use the curse words. what was it about what you heard that got you so livid? >> i'll just keep that to myself because i don't want to politicize that. >> and who stopped you from getting on the phone call? >> the master sergeant that was in charge.

he said i can't do that. >> the portion that you did hear, was that on speaker phone? >> yes, it was. >> so part of it was on speaker phone. >> she was speaking on speaker phone. and i was not the only one in the car. >> i see. so who else heard the conversation? >> well, there were -- her aunt, her uncle, my press person, the driver, the master sergeant. it was people. we're not trying to he leading up to the funeral of this young man, get into some sort of match with the president of the united states, who should be asking for an apology and asking -- giving

her some empathy and love and wrapping his arms around this family. and trying to find out what he could do to make up for what he did say instead of calling me a liar and calling everyone else in the car a liar. he doesn't even know how to sympathize with people. we're grieving. this is a grieving community who is trying to do the very, very best we can in holding up our family. who has paid the ultimate sacrifice. >> yeah. >> and it's disgraceful for him to even tweet about this. and as i say, this gentleman has a brain disorder and he needs to be checked out. >> i know you say there is a

larger issue here is what went wrong. how to fix this? how did sergeant johnson get is separated from his fellow troops? why was he left behind? so when you have tried to approach these with the white house, if you have tried to approach it with the white house and the pentagon, what are the answers? are you making any progress in finding out the mystery of what happened here? >> they tell me that it's all classified and when i go back on monday, i will have a classified briefing. i will be able to find out. and i think the one little nuance that has the wife so grief stricken is she wanted to have an open casket funeral. she is unable to do so because of the condition of his body. especially the face. so she is grieving. we're all grieving! this is hard.

very hard. >> yeah. and his kids, have you been with them? >> they're little. >> how old are they? >> the little boy is 2 and then there is a 6-year-old. but then he has a brother who is 6 years old on. and he was crying the whole time. he said i want my brother. i want my brother. but these are kids. these are kids. and that's why we are starting the scholarship la david johnson scholarship fund, go fund me, because they will have to be educated. so i'm asking everyone who is listening give generously to these kids. they have the brother who came through the project. he is at florida international university in engineering. he has another brother who is in

florida in the -- 5,000 role models so these kids are good kids. this is such a sacrifice for our community. >> yeah. >> sometimes we see so many african-american men lose their lives in the streets of our inner city, and this is a young man that escaped all that. he had everything going for him. >> yeah. >> but he paid the ultimate sacrifice for the country he loved, for his nation, for his family. we should be praising him and praising his family, not insulting them. >> so congresswoman, when you say you think the president needs to be taught and he needs a script, what is that? what did you want to hear? what did mrs. johnson want to

hear from the president? what is that script ideally? >> i think maybe you could have said, you have my deepest sympathy, and he didn't even remember his name, so that was painf painful to her. he was a hero and you will be receiving a letter in the mail. >> that would have done it for you? >> i think so. because when you ask him to say something he goes off script and he doesn't come out right and it hurts everybody's feelings and then we are accused of politicizing something, and it's not politicized, it's just him. so for the best thing for him in these circumstances is to write a note, have -- dictate a note and write a personal note to

each of the families and mail it. when he makes his call, he can cut his call short by just saying i'm sorry, your son was a hero, and even though he already said he doesn't any that people who are caught or killed are heroes, that's what he said about john mccain. so say something nice and then send the letter. >> congresswoman, what will happen today? if the president says he has proof and this continues, what are you looking for the president today. >> i didn't hear you. >> what do you want the president to say today? >> i want him to say absolutely nothing. we are trying to bury our son. >> thank you, and we are sorry for your loss and we knew how

long you knew sergeant johnson from the time he was a child, and thank you for joining us in this tough moment. >> thank you so much. let's bring in cnn political analyst to this conversation. the sad reality is there's not a good chance we won't hear from the president about this again. he spares no one when it comes to somebody calling him out. we are seeing it with john mccain, the guy is fighting cancer. it doesn't matter. anybody who is around any president is telling him not to engage in this kind of back and forth. we have to be careful not to traffic in that either. if he has proof, let him tell it. >> what i heard yesterday from people i spoke to -- i agree with you that we can't traffic too much in this.

i want to note the extraordinary moment we are in, and we are watching a fight between people supporting the family of a slain soldier and the president of the united states over what was said on what was supposed to be the remarkable moment. this is their side of it, and the president was watching television this weekend, and he was watching criticism of him over not having reached out. the response he had was to be frustrated because there was a protocol and he was waiting to be -- essentially let know by staff, his argument was this was clearly a staff failure and we know that happens, and this has happened with previous presidents, however accepting all that, if that's true, the issue is always once you get to, okay, but here we are now and the president did not call until yesterday and the call was not made until i think the widow was on her way to collect her

husband's remains, and it's a difficult time and a charged moment once you are going to do that. as always it comes back to the president's, to your point, ability to step away from it. presidents have moments like this, where things have not gone totally right and what matters is how you handle it going forward. i think most of his advisers would not have wanted him to handled it that way. >> he doesn't -- this is not his strong suit. >> did he say that? >> no, but he said these are hard for me. >> but i don't think he means it the way his critics mean it. i think he is saying it's hard for everybody to do. >> one of the strong suits is

the handwritten note, so he was drafting a letter like that. part of the question is that when all of this came up he brought in general john kelly's situation and said, why don't you ask if president obama called john kelly. he avoided the spotlight of every bringing up his own lost or son's death in 2010. >> we know they say kelly did not get a phone call from president obama when his son died. i don't know if that was a staff issue. i don't know how general kelly feels about that, but my assumption, knowing trump as we do, and as we have for a long time, my assumption is kelly made a nuanced point to him at some point in private about his experience, and the president because his reaction to many

things is to turn it when he is questioned personally to point that way, and say what about president obama or this one or that one, and he compared it to a side by side comparison and invoked the general's son. i think kelly has a series of complicated emotions in terms of how it was handled, and this is hard to handle about what he wants with his son's death. i asked the white house is he fine with this, and i was told yes. >> how could you be fine with somebody politicizing the death of your son? that's a given. and the style situation is largely going to be forgiven with this base because it always is. it doesn't matter that it's about slain soldiers and how he deals with empathy or not or what the congresswoman says. he has architected all of this to get away from what that white

house statement did not clarify. they knew the ambush happened. he puts out statements about things all the time when he doesn't know what he's talking about, and he didn't do it here. this is the largest -- i know you get it, but people need to get it. this is the largest loss of life at the hands of an opponent on his watch. >> i think -- it's funny, i was thinking about this over the weekend and talking to a colleague about it. if you look at how he handled various deaths of military personnel of soldiers, he's been quiet about it. as somebody, to your point, who uses his twitter feed, he has not drawn attention to the loss of life as commander-in-chief. it would be acknowledging it happened on his watch, and i

have to believe this happened -- i think some of this is as he is watching the television, and the timing of the tweet about the phone call to the widow and he has proof, and this was made up about him when the interviews were getting replayed, i think this is just it happened and he reacted. >> these condolence calls are very tough, and this one wouldn't be, i think, wouldn't be a big headline if it were not part of a pattern. he struggles with military service and people who gave the ultimate sacrifice. john mccain, we saw him say something insulting, and it insults pows, how dare they get captured. >> is that a struggle or a choice to be insensitive -- >> my point is this is a

pattern. >> it's not a struggle. >> it's unusual to be seen from a candidate for president and now a president. i will say, and the congresswoman clearly has a long-standing relationship with the family. we don't know how this family feels that the fact this is public either. i want to make that point. when i saw her comments last night, it was not initially clear she was listening to the phone call. i don't know how the family feels about this being repeated. this is private and personal. it's the president who treats, to your point, he does not make a distinction. these are members of the ma military, and they are making a tremendous sacrifice and that deserves a level of respect and attention. e