Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday that if the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump's comments to a Gold Star widow resulted from "an inartful communication," then he should "correct the problem."
"You'll never convince me that President Trump doesn't grieve when somebody falls in the line of duty on his watch," the South Carolina Republican told reporters at the Capitol. "Same for President [Barack] Obama.
"I know President Obama and Michelle Obama have really spent a lot of times with the families of the fallen — and I've seen President Trump in action.
"He goes out of his way to greet a military member.
"If there was an inartful communication of what [White House Chief of Staff John] Kelly was trying to explain to President Trump, then correct that problem.
"Quite frankly, I am ready to move on."
The fracas over President Trump's comments Tuesday to Myeshia Johnson, 24, of Miami Gardens, Florida, continued Friday — as White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders slammed Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson as "all hat, no cattle" in defending Kelly's attack on the representative the previous day.
When challenged on Kelly's comments by reporters — after video surfaced of Wilson's 2015 speech that refuted his comments — Sanders responded: "If you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general, I think that's something highly inappropriate."
Graham disagreed.
"No," he said. "Not in America.
"I just think a member of Congress should have some discipline and so should the president."
The senator credited Wilson, whom he does not know, for being in the car with Johnson to greet the remains of her fallen husband, Army Sgt. La David Johnson, 25.
"But I think she started something," Graham told reporters.
"If I were in the car with a family and President Obama was calling, I would never suggest that — from a political point of view — he had done something wrong."
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