Female Congressional Black Caucus: Rep. Wilson Owed Apologies

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly needs to apologize to Rep. Frederica Wilson for trying to "demean her character" by saying she'd pat herself on the back for funding a new FBI building in Florida, Reps. Alma Adams and Barbara Lee, who have joined other female members of the Congressional Black Caucus in their call, said Monday.

"First of all, he was in error," Adams, a North Carolina Democrat, told CNN "New Day" co-host Alisyn Camerota. "He did not tell the truth."

Adams said Kelly now knows what the truth is, even if he didn't know when he made his comments about Wilson, after she complained about the president's call to Myeshia Johnson, the Gold Star widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four Green Berets killed in action in Niger earlier this month.

Wilson has served her constituents well at the local and state level and "now she's in Congress and she's doing a tremendous job," Adams said. "For him to try to demean her character and her integrity in this way is absolutely unacceptable."

The first insult, Lee said, wasn't when Kelly accused Wilson of grandstanding about the FBI building, but when he accused her of acting improperly by listening to the condolence call at all.

"There is room for apologies from all in the administration from Communications Director [Sarah] Sanders, from Gen. Kelly who is a friend and I know particularly when he led the Southern Command, and from the president of the United States," Lee said. "The key here is really the first insult being accused of listening in to the condolence call from President Trump. She wasn't listening in. She was part of the family in the family car on the way to receive the body. That should be clear."

Further, said Lee, the American public needs to understand what the African command is about.

"I was in Congress when we, the Congressional Black Caucus and others, advocated for the establishment when Charles Taylor was brutalizing and killing his citizens in Liberia,"

Taylor, the former leader of Liberia, was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2012 on 11 counts of crimes against humanity, including terrorism, murder, rape and military conscription of children during Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war.

Lee said she did not know about all the specifics of some 1,000 U.S. troops being in Niger, but pointed out that she and Wilson had been in the first delegation going into Nigeria following the Boko Haram kidnappings of nearly 300 schoolgirls.

"What should be noted is all the individuals that unfortunately died, were sergeants," Lee said. "We need a full investigation. They were obviously doing some different kind of mission. That's why this ridiculous back and forth between the White House is untimely, unseemly."

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