Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
During a press conference at the White House on Monday, President Trump said he had not yet called the families of four US soldiers who died in an ambush attack in Niger almost two weeks ago because he wanted "a little time to pass."
Trump also made a claim that previous presidents, including Barack Obama, didn't make calls to the families of soldiers who had died.
"The traditional way if you look at president Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls. A lot of them didn't make calls," the president said in the White House Rose Garden.
Alyssa Mastromonaco, a former aide to President Obama, called the claim "a fucking lie" on Twitter.
Mastromonaco, a former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations in the Obama administration, added: "to say president obama (or past presidents) didn't call the family members of soldiers KIA - he's a deranged animal."
Four US Army soldiers were killed and two others were wounded in an ambush by a group believed to be affiliated with ISIS on October 4, near the Niger-Mali border. All soldiers involved in the ambush were members of the US Army Special Forces, known as the Green Berets.
The president also claimed that he had written letters to the families, saying they would "either go out today or tomorrow."
"I've written personal letters. They've been sent or they're going out tonight, but they were during the weekend," the president said.
"I like to call when it's appropriate, when I think I'm able to do it," President Trump added. "They have made the ultimate sacrifice so generally I would say that I like to call. I'm going to be calling them."
President Trump called the phone calls "a very difficult thing."
"It gets to a point where you make four or five of them in one day, it's a very tough day and for me that's by far the toughest," he said.
LINK: The Pentagon Has Identified The Fourth Elite US Soldier Killed In An Ambush In Niger
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/2yrQqgb
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