1. Chief of Staff John Kelly made a somber appearance in the White House briefing room.

In an emotional defense of President Trump’s much-criticized call to an Army widow, he said he had told the president what he was told when he was informed of his own son’s combat death in 2010: “He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were, because we were at war.”

He said that Mr. Trump was trying to make the same point in conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David T. Johnson this week. Here’s the full video and transcript of Mr. Kelly’s remarks.