CNN reporter: Media has responsibility to ask why troops are at risk

A CNN reporter on Thursday said reporters always have the responsibility to ask why troops are at risk and if they have what they need.

CNN reporter Barbara Starr said people in the Trump administration want to “recapture the narrative” after President Trump faced controversy for comments a Democratic lawmaker said he made to the widow of a fallen soldier.

“The media, the press corps in this country has the responsibility to always ask, always ask why troops are at risk, why they are where they are, are they appropriately protected, do they have the right intelligence, do they have what they need,” Starr said Thursday.

“It would be worse than awful if we were not out there asking every day.”

{mosads}

Starr brought up media reports that Army Sgt. La David Johnson was “left behind.”

“I think some of the narrative that we are hearing from the administration, they want to use the words that he was separated from his unit,” she said.

“Yes, he was. He got separated. We don’t know how. We don’t know what happened to this young man.”

Starr added, “What a day it would be in America if the news media did not ask about every single soldier serving on the battlefield.”

Her comments came after White House chief of staff John Kelly gave an emotional speech Thursday defending Trump’s call to the widow of a fallen soldier.

During the White House press briefing, Kelly lashed out at Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), saying he was “stunned” by her negative description of Trump’s call to the wife of a U.S. soldier killed in Niger earlier this month.

Kelly also said there is an investigation into the attack.

“An investigation doesn’t mean anything was wrong. An investigation doesn’t mean people’s heads are going to roll,” Kelly said.

“The fact is, they need to find out what happened and why it happened.”