Montel Williams

Opinion contributor

Hands down the most important national commitment we have is honoring the fallen and caring for the family members they leave behind — a commitment, I believe, that enjoys wide support across demographic and political lines.

That commitment requires we welcome the fallen home as one of our most solemn national acts, one which should be above politics, and we expect our elected leaders to serve as consolers to the families they leave behind. It is intolerable that Army Sgt. La David Johnson’s family has now been thrust in the middle of the latest episode of the Trump Show.

We all saw pictures of Sgt. La David Johnson’s wife, Myeshia, and one of their children grief stricken after his casket was offloaded. Her quiet dignity, the grace with which she endured mourning before the entire country, remind us that when we thank our troops for their service, we must also thank their families for their sacrifice.

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Her dignity deserved to be met with dignity and compassion by her president. That apparently didn’t happen, which is intolerable because it runs counter to what we claim as our ideals. America is at its best when we live up to our ideals — expectations set by those who came before us — without which we might well remain subjects of the crown.

For several reasons, I accept at least as mostly true Rep. Frederica Wilson’s account of the conversation between Ms. Johnson and President Trump:

When this first came to light, the White House declined to push back.

Second, Sgt. Johnson’s mother not only confirmed Wilson’s account on the record, she expanded on it, telling The Washington Post that the conversation left Ms. Johnson in tears.

Third, and probably most important, there is no rational basis to take Trump at his word when he has spent the past several days repeatedly lying, even after being confronted with the truth, about the practices of former presidents with respect to the fallen.

Sgt. Johnson was a hero. He met his wife when they were 6, and by all accounts, he was the husband any father would want for his daughter and the father every mother wants for her children. They got married and had two kids and have one more on the way. He joined to serve his country and provide the best opportunities he could for his young family. He mattered.

So did the mission. Americans could be forgiven for not knowing why we have troops in Niger. Working with our French allies, U.S. forces are helping to drive out a variety of al-Qaeda and ISIL-affiliated groups. We should not forget that one of those groups, Boko Haram, famously kidnapped young girls from school in Nigeria and married them off to its fighters. The mission was just, and Sgt. Johnson and the three other Green Berets died standing up for the very best of American ideals in a particularly dangerous part of the world.

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After we learned of the casualties, I watched with interest for Trump’s response because I thought this would be a great opportunity for him to demonstrate the kind of maturity and dignity necessary to be president while also promising to chase the terrorists who killed these Green Berets to the gates of hell. I want the president to succeed, especially when it comes to these most solemn of duties. I watched for 12 days wondering what he was planning to do to acknowledge the fallen, confused, wondering even whether his silence was necessary to achieve a military objective when clearly it was not. And I was horrified when he made a point of telling journalists how hard these calls were for him, seemingly oblivious to the kind of overwhelming grief we all saw in that photo of Ms. Johnson doubled over her husband’s casket.

This president ran on “respect for the military,” which he repeatedly claimed that former president Barack Obama lacked.

My frustration with Obama’s lack of communication with the families of Marines held abroad, one held hostage in Iran, is well-documented and was very loud. Obama was dealing with significant casualties on a daily and weekly basis, and I think he did a good job acknowledging them and comforting their families from the White House and from Dover Air Force Base.

Yet again, when faced with an utter failure to perform his most important duties, Trump reverted to untrue attacks on Obama, and that is intolerable.

Simply put, the president’s handling of his call with Ms. Johnson was unacceptable in every way. Often, these coming home ceremonies for the fallen, the acknowledgement of their service by their commander in chief and other senior leaders, serve as the foundation for how their young children will remember them. Ms. Johnson is pregnant with a child who will only know his or her father as a memory. We should all be ashamed that her kids will one day read that the commander in chief made their mother cry.

The extent to which we’ve allowed our politics to be hijacked by anger, ignorance, lies and hate should alarm us all. Too many have allowed their worst angels to draw them into a cult of personality. Our nation will survive, but the ideals that have sustained it since its inception might not.

Montel Williams, a 22-year veteran of the Marine Corps and Navy who served primarily as a special duty intelligence officer, went on to start the Emmy-award-winning Montel Williams Show that ran for 17 seasons. Follow him on Twitter @Montel_Williams.