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Trump defends call to fallen soldier's widow

Myeshia Johnson is presented with the U.S. flag that was draped over the casket of her husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, during his burial service at Fred Hunter's Hollywood Memorial Gardens in Hollywood, Fla., on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017. Mourners remembered not only a U.S. soldier whose combat death in Africa led to a political fight between President Donald Trump and a Florida congresswoman but his three comrades who died with him. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

Washington • President Donald Trump is defending his call to a fallen soldier's widow, saying he was "respectful" and did not forget the slain soldier's name.

Trump addressed the call on Twitter Monday after Myeshia Johnson, La David Johnson's widow, appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America." She said that in Trump's call to her last week he "couldn't remember my husband's name."

Johnson added: "The only way he could remember my husband's name was he told me he had my husband's report in front of him and that's when he actually said La David."

On Twitter, Trump said: "I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!"

Johnson and three comrades died Oct. 4 in Africa in an attack.