White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday defended President Donald Trump's comment that previous presidents had not called the families of fallen soldiers.
"The President wasn't criticizing predecessors, but stating a fact," Sanders said in a statement issued Monday, The Hill reported.
"When American heroes make the ultimate sacrifice, presidents pay their respects," Sanders said. "Sometimes they call, sometimes they send a letter, other times they have the opportunity to meet family members in person. This president, like his predecessors, has done each of these."
But Sanders struck back against people, including two former staffers of President Barack Obama, who took offense at Trump's original statement made during a Rose Garden press conference.
"Individuals claiming former Presidents, such as their bosses, called each family of the fallen, are mistaken," Sanders said.
Trump was asked during the press conference why he had not commented publicly on the deaths of four American soldiers killed in an attack in Niger last week.
Trump replied he had written personal letters to the families.
"They've been sent, or they're going out [Monday night], but they were written during the weekend," he said.
He also said he plans to call each family at some point.
"I will at some point, during the period of time, call the parents and the families. I have done that traditionally. I felt very, very badly about that. I always feel badly. The toughest calls I have to make are the calls where this happens, soldiers are killed. It is a difficult thing. It gets to a point where you make four or five of them in one day. It's a very, very tough day. For me, it's by far the toughest."
Trump then added, "If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls."
In response to a later question, Trump said he didn't know exactly what Obama had done, but had been told "he didn't often. A lot of presidents don't. They write letters. I do a combination of both. . . . President Obama I think probably did sometimes. Maybe sometimes he didn't. I don't know, that's what I was told."
Alyssa Mastromonaco, who worked in the Obama White House, used profanity on Twitter to call Trump's statement a lie. Former Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer was also critical.