RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – As President Donald Trump argued about what he said to the family of a soldier killed in Niger, a North Carolina congressman was quietly doing what he’s done more than 11,000 times: signing a condolence letter to that family and others.
Republican Rep. Walter Jones began signing the letters to families in 2003 as penance for his 2002 vote supporting war in Iraq.
He calls the letters “a sacred responsibility.”
The 74-year-old Jones says Trump would do well to stop arguing about what he said to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four soldiers killed Oct. 4 in Niger. He says the president’s best move is to “just let it go.”
Jones was elected to the U.S. House in 1994 in a district that includes Camp Lejeune.
