Tag: Niger

Omarosa Releases New Recording of Trump Team Joking and Laughing While Talking About American Soldiers Killed in Niger Ambush

The former White House aide had been releasing recordings of her time working for Trump.The former White House aide had been releasing recordings of her time working for Trump.

Omarosa Manigault Newman, former White House aide and reality TV star, released a new recording of her time working for President Donald Trump Monday that reveals him joking to a group of staffers in a discussion about an ambush in Niger that killed four American soldiers.

“There were people in many cases, that were in the Middle East, that now got to Africa to try and, you know, cause problems there. And ultimately they wanna come back here, because this is where they really wanna be. So its a rough, uh, business. I wouldn’t, I don’t think I’d want to be a terrorist right now,” Trump said on the recording, eliciting laughter from the people he was with.

He continued jokingly, apparently encouraged by the laughter: “It’s not a good life but it’s uh, the only thing that — what else is there?”

View the complete article by Cody Fenwick (9/10/18) on the AlterNet.org website here.

Timeline: How the Trump administration responded to the Niger attack

The following article by Ellen Mitchell and Julia Manchester was posted on the Hill website October 21, 2017:

Lawmakers are pressing the Trump administration over the death of four U.S. soldiers in Niger earlier this month, questioning the United States’s presence in the African nation and American support for troops stationed in the region.

The Pentagon and White House have faced questions over the Oct. 4 incident after it was revealed that the body of one of the soldiers killed in the ambush was recovered two days after the raid, with reports Friday indicating the soldier was recovered nearly a mile from the attack.

President Trump’s delayed public response to the ambush has also drawn questions, while comments he made in a press conference early this week defending his handling of calls to the families of fallen soldiers sparked backlash and a subsequent feud over his handling of one call to the widow of a soldier killed in Niger. Continue reading “Timeline: How the Trump administration responded to the Niger attack”

Political Guardrails Gone, a President’s Somber Duty Skids Into Spectacle

The following article by Michael D. Shear was posted on the New York Post website October 21, 2017:

President Trump did not do what any of his predecessors almost certainly would have done: apologize for words that failed to bring comfort to a grieving Army widow. Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Blame it on these bitter political times.

The feud over President Trump’s call to the widow of a fallen soldier might never have escalated had Mr. Trump done what any of his predecessors almost certainly would have done: quickly apologize for words that failed to bring comfort.

Likewise, the nasty back-and-forth with Frederica S. Wilson, a Democratic congresswoman who is close to the soldier’s family, might have dissipated had she not repeatedly disparaged Mr. Trump’s intentions on national television, failing to extend him the benefit of the doubt that previous presidents had received. Continue reading “Political Guardrails Gone, a President’s Somber Duty Skids Into Spectacle”

Pentagon investigating troubling questions after deadly Niger ambush

The following article by W.J. Hennigan and Brian Bennett was posted on the Los Angeles Times website October 19, 2017:

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, troubled by a lack of information two weeks after an ambush on a special operations patrol in Niger left four U.S. soldiers dead, is demanding a timeline of what is known about the attack, as a team of investigators sent to West Africa begins its work.

The growing list of unanswered questions and inability to construct a precise account of the Oct. 4 incident have exacerbated a public relations nightmare for the White House, which is embroiled in controversy over President Trump’s belated and seemingly clumsy response this week to console grieving military families. Continue reading “Pentagon investigating troubling questions after deadly Niger ambush”