Trump ignites furor with claim past presidents didn’t console military families by phone

John Yang:

The response of the former Obama officials was rapid and energetic.

The former prosecutor General Eric Holder tweeted this photo and insisted: “Stop the fucking lies. I went to the base of Dover Air Force with 44 and I saw him comfort the families”, a reference to one of Mr. Obama’s end of evening trips to pay tribute to the troops killed in Afghanistan.

Mr. Obama and President George W. Bush have often visited warriors injured in the hospitals of Walter Reed and Bethesda, a practice that Trump continued. In February, the president and his daughter Ivanka went to Dover for the return of the remains of a Navy seal killed in Yemen, the first victim of his administration.

So far this year, the Pentagon says that 16 Americans have been killed in combat. 17 other sailors died in accidents. During the first year of the Obama presidency, 344 were killed in combat.

During the campaign of last year, Trump publicly finished with the Khans, the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq, after criticizing him in the Democratic Convention.

Today, the Khans said: “The selfish and dividing actions of President Trump have undermined the dignity of the high functioning of the presidency.”

The current controversy occurs while questions are raised about how the four soldiers died in Niger.

Senator Jack Reed is the best democrat of the Armed Services Committee.