Carryn Owens appearance was one of the high points of President Donald Trump's speech. | AP Photo Trump invited Yemen raid widow to speech during condolence call

President Donald Trump invited the widow of the Navy SEAL killed during a January raid in Yemen to be a guest at his address to Congress during a condolence call on Jan. 31, according to White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

Carryn Owens’s appearance in the gallery, sitting next to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, wasn’t announced before the speech but became a high point for the president after Trump thanked her for the sacrifice of her husband, Ryan, prompting a standing ovation from members of Congress gathered in the House chamber.


“Referencing her in the speech, that was her decision,” Spicer said Wednesday. “The president said he would like to raise this, and she said, ‘I would like that.’”

Trump approved the raid in which Owens was killed during his first week as president. The operation went badly wrong, with a nighttime firefight that left three other American servicemembers wounded and a $75 million aircraft deliberately destroyed. Along with Owens, more than a dozen civilians were also killed, including the 8-year-old American-born daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, an al Qaeda leader killed in a 2011 drone strike.

The president distanced himself from the raid on an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday only hours before his congressional address, saying the planning had started under President Barack Obama and suggesting that it was the fault of military planners.

Ryan Owens’ father told the Miami Herald that he refused to meet with the president, who traveled with Ivanka Trump to witness the return of Owens’ body to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware in early February.

Spicer said Carryn Owens visited the White House on Tuesday with her three children before Trump’s congressional address. “Our goal was to make sure we respected her privacy,” he told reporters.

SEAL’s death provides emotional moment but no easy answers An excerpt of President Trump's remarks on Tuesday.