Rep. Frederica Wilson has been locked in a nasty spat with the Trump White House over a phone call to a war widow–and now, she’s bragging about how much its raised her national profile.
When asked about criticism from White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly (USMC, Ret.) during an interview with Fox’s Miami affiliate, Wilson said, while laughing, “You mean to tell me that I have become so important that the White House is following me and my words? This is amazing! That’s amazing! That is absolutely phenomenal! I’ll have to tell my kids that I’m a rock star now!”
Wilson added, gleefully, ““Let me tell you what my mother told me when I was little,” Wilson said. “She said, ‘The dog can bark at the moon all night long, but it doesn’t become an issue until the moon barks back.’”
She would later, in another interview, go after Kelly personally–saying he was “trying to keep his job” and “will say anything.”
The controversy sprung up after Wilson had claimed that President Trump told Myeisha Johnson, whose husband La David had been killed in combat in Niger, that “he knew what he signed up for.”
Kelly, who lost his own son in Afghanistan in 2010, didn’t deny that Trump had used that language, but claimed that he had advised Trump on what to say to Johnson–and that Trump had echoed the sentimental language that Kelly had heard from his son’s commanding officer.
“I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning, and brokenhearted, at [what] a member of Congress was doing,” said Kelly, of Wilson. “It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation. It stuns me. I thought at least that was sacred.”
Following heavy criticism of Rep. Wilson’s “rock star” comments, her office released a statement saying they would bow out from the controversy, stating: “The congresswoman will not be making any further comment on the issue because the focus should be on helping a grieving widow and family heal, not on her or Donald Trump.”
