Rep. Frederica Wilson (D., Fla.) denied on Wednesday she was politicizing a soldier's death by talking about a widow's phone call with President Donald Trump, while continuing to give interviews and discuss her politics.
Wilson grabbed headlines on Tuesday night when she said she heard President Donald Trump's conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of the four U.S. Army Special Forces killed in Niger earlier this month. The congresswoman told CNN's Don Lemon she was in the car, with the president on speakerphone.
"Basically, he [Trump] said, 'Well, I guess he [Johnson] knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurt,'" Wilson said.
"That's what he said," she added.
On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," co-host Katty Kay asked Wilson if she was using the death of Sgt. La David Johnson for political gain.
"What I'm really concerned about, and I wrote a letter to General Mattis about the circumstances surrounding his death, I'm not trying to politicize what the president said," Wilson said. "That letter went out long before the conversation."
Wilson proceeded to talk about legislation in Congress that addresses Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist terrorist group founded and based in Nigeria. She referred to the legislation as "my project," and said she had many questions surrounding the nature of Johnson's death.
"What I'm asking you specifically is, are you complicit in politicizing this conversation around the deaths of fallen soldiers?" Kay asked.
"Someone asked me a question, ‘did you hear the call? tell us what you heard.’ I told them what I heard," Wilson said. "That's not politicizing anything. That was my constituent."
Wilson has given several nationwide interviews since Trump's phone call with Johnson's widow on Tuesday.