Rep. Frederica Wilson stepped into the spotlight this week after sharing details from President Donald Trump's phone call with Army Sgt. La David Johnson’s widow. | AP White House slams Rep. Wilson as 'all hat, no cattle' The sharp words come after chief of staff John Kelly appeared to misrepresent the Florida congresswoman's remarks at an FBI ceremony.

The White House on Friday aggressively defended chief of staff John Kelly’s accusations against a Florida congresswoman, denying that he had misrepresented her remarks during a FBI field office dedication and slamming the famously behatted Rep. Frederica Wilson as "all hat, no cattle."

In the latest twist in a multi-day controversy regarding President Donald Trump’s condolence call to a military widow, Wilson (D-Fla.) accused Kelly earlier Friday of lying about her during his emotional remarks in defense of the president’s comments during that call.


Kelly, a former Marine Corps general whose own son was killed in action in 2010 in Afghanistan, told reporters Thursday that he was “brokenhearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing,” accusing Wilson (D-Fla.) of politicizing the death of Army Sgt. La David Johnson to attack Trump.

In criticizing Wilson, however, Kelly appeared to make incorrect statements about another incident: the 2015 dedication of an FBI field office in Miami, where he suggested Wilson had inappropriately sought credit for obtaining funding for the building in remarks that followed speeches from survivors of a 1986 firefight between bureau agents and drug traffickers.

Wilson, in an interview with CNN Friday morning, accused Kelly of lying.

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“You know, I feel sorry for Gen. Kelly. He has my sympathy for the loss of his son. But he can't just go on TV and lie on me. I was not even in Congress in 2009 when the money for the building was secured. So that's a lie. How dare he?” Wilson said Friday on CNN's "New Day." “He didn't tell the truth, and he needs to stop telling lies on me.”

While video from the event unearthed by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel does not show Wilson talking about funding — she spoke instead of spearheading fast-track legislation to name the building after two slain FBI agents — White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later on Friday insisted Kelly's remarks had expressed valid frustration.

She pointedly evaded questions about why Kelly had accused Wilson of bragging about funding for the building when she had not. Sanders also suggested that the lawmaker had made other remarks inappropriate for the occasion that had not been captured by video, although she was unable to offer specifics of what those statements had been other than to label them "grandstanding."

Sanders was also unwilling to commit Kelly to clarifying his misstatements to reporters, telling the briefing room that the former general had "addressed that pretty thoroughly."

Pressed further by a reporter who noted Kelly's characterization of the 2015 event had been wrong, Sanders sharply replied, "If you want to go after Gen. Kelly, that's up to you. But I think that if you want to get into a debate with the four-star marine general, I think that's something highly inappropriate."

She also defended Kelly's criticism that Wilson acted in the spirit of "empty barrels making the most noise."

"If you don't understand that reference, I'll put it a little more simply: As we say in the South, all hat, no cattle," Sanders said.

The latest accusations bring the controversy over Trump's handling of his condolence phone call to Johnson's widow into its fourth day, elongating a potentially damaging story that has dominated much of the week's news cycle just as the White House is ramping up its tax reform push and is trying to salvage its Obamacare repeal effort. Trump's feud with Wilson — he called the congresswoman "wacky" and a liar Thursday night — also recalls the president's feud last summer with another Gold Star family, the Khans, raising questions about his interactions with such families overall.

Two of the president's sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, waded into the controversy themselves on Friday. Eric Trump, in an interview with Fox News' "Fox & Friends," called Wilson's willingness to share the contents of the president's conversation with a Gold Star widow "just disgusting," an action that "shows the absolute worst of politics."

Donald Trump Jr. shared a video on Twitter of Wilson responding to Kelly's remarks by saying, "You mean to tell me that I have become so important that the White House is following me and my words? This is amazing. That’s amazing. That is absolutely phenomenal. I’ll have to tell my kids that I’m a rock star now." Along with posting the video, the president's son wrote, "So, what anyone with a brain already knew comes out on tape. Make a name for yourself at any cost. Disgusting person."

In defending the president against accusations that he had been insensitive, Kelly struck back at Wilson, saying he was stunned when Wilson took credit for securing funding for the FBI office.

In his recollection of the events, Kelly said that Wilson “stood up, and in the long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there and all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money, and she just called up President Obama, and on that phone call he gave the money — the $20 million — to build the building. And she sat down, and we were stunned. Stunned that she had done it. Even for someone that is that empty a barrel, we were stunned.”

The Sun-Sentinel video doesn’t reflect the uncomfortable moments Kelly recalled. Instead, Wilson recounts how legislation to name the building was whisked through Congress on a bipartisan basis, showing the crowd laughing at her jokes as she recalled taking on the challenge of quickly naming the building when others said it couldn’t be done.

“I’m a school principal. I said, excuse my French, 'Aw, hell no. We’re going to get this done,’” Wilson recalled, leading to cheers. Later, she led the crowd in a call and response where she had them repeat the tenets of “fidelity, bravery, integrity.”

Money was not discussed in the video.

Wilson, who joined the U.S. Congress in 2011, stepped into the spotlight this week after sharing with the media on Tuesday and Wednesday that Trump had told Johnson’s widow in a telephone conversation that her husband had known what he signed up for when he enlisted in the military — but that his death was sad nonetheless. She said she had heard part of the president’s conversation with the widow via speakerphone and that the widow had been left with the impression that Trump did not know her husband’s name.

During Thursday's news conference, Kelly shared the story of his son’s death in Afghanistan, a subject about which he is typically private. He said Gen. Joe Dunford, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had consoled him with words similar to what the president said to Johnson’s widow this week.

“He was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent,” Kelly said Dunford had told him. “He knew what the possibilities were because we’re at war, and when he died … he was surrounded by the best men on this earth, his friends.”

But Wilson told CNN on Friday that the bottom line was that Johnson’s family had been left hurt and offended by Trump’s remarks. The president’s sentiment, that Johnson “knew what he signed up for,” was inappropriate for a grieving widow, Wilson said.

That Johnson’s body was left behind and not recovered until two days after the initial attack was especially concerning, Wilson said, and further proof that the consolation offered to Kelly when his son died was inappropriate for Johnson’s family. “He was abandoned for two days, for 48 hours. Why?” she said. “Why didn't they pick him up and put him on their shoulders like they did the other fallen comrades, and put him on a helicopter and take him to safety. He could have still been alive.”

“That is not a good message to say to anyone who has lost a child at war. You don't sign up because you knew you're going to die. You sign up to serve your country,” she said. “There's nothing to misinterpret. He said what he said. I just don't agree with it. I don't agree that that is what you should say to grieving families.”

Marc Caputo contributed to this report.

