Two weeks after four American soldiers were ambushed and killed in Niger, President Donald Trump has been taking criticism for not contacting their families.
But the brother of one of the soldiers, – Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, a Green Beret – said on Tuesday that Trump’s timing might be for the best.”
“I’m glad that it’s taken a little bit of time because my family has been extremely overwhelmed,” Will Wright told anchor Chris Cuomo on CNN’s “New Day.”
Wright said a call with the President had been scheduled for later Tuesday and his family considered it “a great honor.”
“There’s been so much going on that if the President had called any earlier, we would not have been able to give it the gravity and the seriousness that it deserved because we were busy taking care of my brother and ensuring that he was laid to rest,” said Wright.
“It would be better now, honestly, to have that moment to share a conversation with the President and not be caught in the middle of the whirlwind of the last week and a half, two weeks.”
‘We were very blessed’
On Monday, Trump addressed the deaths of the four men for the first time, saying he planned to call the families. He also claimed, without merit, that his predecessors hadn’t written or called the families of slain troops during their tenures The tradition of presidents reaching out after US servicemen are killed in action is long-established.
Wright ended his conversation with Cuomo by encouraging people to support the other soldiers’ familes. “If you know those families, reach out to them,” he said of the relatives of those who served with his brother.
“Love them. Support them. We were very blessed. People moved heaven and earth to make sure my brother was home and we want the same for those families. If anyone near them can just reach out to them, show them love, and thank them for their service and thank them for their sacrifice and for loving my brother and fighting with him.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the four fallen soldiers as Green Berets. Two of them were Green Berets and two were support personnel.
Watch New Day weekdays at 6am-9am ET. For the latest on New Day click here
