Dem senator: Trump hasn’t been forthcoming enough about attack on US soldiers in Niger

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said Tuesday President Trump has not been forthcoming about the details surrounding the deadly attack in Niger earlier this month that left four Green Berets dead.

When asked on CNN’s “Newsroom” if Trump had been forthcoming about the attack, Reed said: “No, I don’t think so.”

“I think the administration has to be more clear about our role in Niger and our role in other areas in Africa and other parts of the globe. They have to connect it to a strategy. They should do that. I think that the inattention to this issue is not acceptable,” said Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

{mosads}Reed has joined a growing group of lawmakers who want to review of how the Army Green Berets were led into the deadly ambush.

His remarks come after Trump on Monday defended his delay in responding to the recent deaths in Niger, while also controversially claiming that former President Obama and other past presidents didn’t call the families of fallen soldiers. 

“The traditional way, if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls, a lot of them didn’t make calls,” Trump said in response to a question about the attack during an impromptu press conference in the White House Rose Garden.

“I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it.”

When pressed on his statement, the president said he was “told” that Obama didn’t call the families of slain soldiers often.

“And some presidents didn’t do anything,” Trump continued.

Reed slammed Trump for his remarks, calling his claims a “gross mischaracterization of what previous presidents have done.”

The Democratic lawmaker said Trump treated calling the families of the fallen Green Berets like a “routine that we would get to eventually.”