“If you look at other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls.”
President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that most former presidents did not call the families of fallen soldiers, with Trump saying that he heard President Obama and others never called families like Trump planned to do, as seen in the below videos. However, folks with intimate knowledge of the matter were quick to counter those claims, and some people did so in an angry and effective manner. One such person was Delilia O’Malley , who called Trump a “fat f****** liar” on Twitter as she told Trump directly that President George W. Bush not only listened as Delilia screamed at him, but Bush also hugged O’Malley after her brother was killed in Iraq. Delilia has received more than 300,000 likes on Twitter for her tweet, with hundreds of thousands of retweets. The @DeliliaOMalley Twitter profile describes her as a Republican who doesn’t support Trump.
“Lifelong Republican who opposes Trump. Painfully disappointed in the weak, spineless leaders of my party. # DonTheCon . Country over Party.”
Trump was also called a liar by Obama aide Alyssa Mastromonaco, as well as by Eric Holder, as seen in the below tweet. Trump’s claims were countered by many other Gold Star families.
Trump just claimed no President has ever called families of fallen troops, insulting thousands of Gold Star Families pic.twitter.com/G3gW160Wfn
— Common Defense (@commondefense) October 16, 2017
Along with Delilia’s heated response about Bush comforting her in the past, Pete Souza – a former photographer in the White House during Obama’s reign – posted the following photo as proof of the “hundreds” of times that Obama comforted grieving military families.
As reported by the Daily Mail , Delilia made her popular Twitter comments after Trump appeared in the Rose Garden on Monday for an impromptu press conference that lasted approximately 45 minutes. Trump was questioned about the deaths of four soldiers in Niger on October 4, and his lack of commentary about the tragedy. That’s when Trump launched his verbal attacks against former presidents, with the claims that they never or rarely called families of fallen soldiers.
Stop the damn lying – you’re the President. I went to Dover AFB with 44 and saw him comfort the families of both the fallen military & DEA. pic.twitter.com/HhE4KbTBkJ
— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) October 17, 2017
Trump stated that he had written letters that were either already mailed or soon to be mailed to the loved ones of the four elite U.S. Special Forces soldiers who were ambushed by ISIS. Trump was asked again about his claims that Obama never called the families of fallen soldiers, and that’s when Trump backpedaled and said he was told Obama didn’t call.
Contrarily, photos of President Obama saluting the remains of Sgt. Dale R. Griffin as he returned to Dover Air Force Base in October 2009, along with plenty of other images of President Obama comforting Gold Star families, are going viral online.
[Featured Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
