Former “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather is taking an extremely dim view of President Donald Trump’s conduct in the controversy surrounding his reported comments to an Army widow.

The widow of U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who died in a deadly ambush in Niger, as well as her mother and Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson, have reported Trump saying in a phone call to her that her husband “knew what he signed up for.” The president has denied making the remark and responded robustly.

Attending a special screening at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York, of the Netflix NFLX, -0.05% documentary “Get Me Roger Stone,” a study of flamboyant libertarian political strategist Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump, Rather told MarketWatch of Trump’s conduct over the condolence call: “To me it’s inexplicable, not to mention unforgivable.”

“That’s one thing. The second thing is there was a way to quickly make amends. Realizing he had said the wrong things and he was insensitive, he could have picked up the phone and said some version of, ‘Look I want to set the record straight. I’m sorry I didn’t handle it well. What I meant to say was this.’ He had an opportunity to do that, but he didn’t do that.”

Rather said Trump was operating in accordance with the playbook of Roger Stone: “He thinks it’s in his benefit to be in constant conflict. That’s what Roger Stone taught him, and the film brings it out so well. Roger Stone’s rules are, ‘Attack, attack, attack.’ So with the grieving family of a soldier, the second Trump got any criticism, it’s instantaneous. Don’t think about making apologies. Don’t think about trying to alleviate the tension and the outrage.”

Rather participated in a conversation following the screening of “Get Me Roger Stone” with the film’s directors, Dylan Bank, Daniel DiMauro and Morgan Pehme. He said during the discussion, “You need to put all caps, underlined, italicized, ‘This is not normal.’ The future of the country — it’s not too strong to say — depends on whether we accept what has been happening as the new normal going forward or do we say, ‘No this is an aberration. This is not normal.’ History tells us this is not normal. We have never had any president behave this way.”

Rather is a noted critic of President Trump on social media, especially on Facebook, but he said he had been surprised by Trump’s political strategy since taking office. “I rather thought that once he got to the presidency, not that he would change completely but that some of the worst characteristics that were exposed by Trump during the campaign would be moderated somewhat and that he would be smart enough to see both in his own personal interests and the best interests of the country, that he would try to be president of all Americans.”

“I thought frankly it might happen fairly quickly, and if it didn’t happen quickly it would slowly emerge. Now that has not been the case, and I was wrong about that,” he said.

Rather reckoned the documentary “Get Me Roger Stone” is critical to understanding the president. He said, “I think it’s a very important film, particularly now. I find increasingly people ask, ‘How in the hell did Donald Trump get to be president of the United States?’ This film is among the best answers to that question I’ve seen or read. Roger Stone in many ways created the Donald Trump that we see today. ....I wouldn’t be driving all the way to Queens if this wasn’t an important film.”

He added: “Not only is understanding Roger Stone the key to understanding Donald Trump. He is a key, and perhaps the key, to understanding what has happened with American politics since the middle of the 1960s. Many people have never heard of him, much less have any clue about how important he has been for taking our politics to where it is now.”

Co-director Bank said: “All along Roger had many schemes going — and one of them was running Trump for president. That wasn’t the scheme we took the most seriously, but he certainly had the last laugh on that one.”

Fellow director Pehme said: “What’s extraordinary about Trump is you would think that somebody who ran a large company would have a vast network. But he has a very small insular orbit, and there are very few people that he trusts. One of the things that struck us was that Roger and Paul Manafort were the only people to call him Donald as opposed to Mr. Trump.”

“Everybody else had this reverential, sycophantic relationship with him. Roger knows how to communicate with Trump and feels at ease to be candid with him. ... Trump will always turn to Roger for guidance because there are very few people who respect their opinion, and Roger is at the top of the list.”

“Get Me Roger Stone” is being touted as in the running for best documentary at next year’s Oscars.

Of the prospect of Stone attending film’s biggest night of the year, Pehme said this: “That would be an explosive development for the Academy Awards.”