Breitbart Editor Goes There, Trashes Gold Star Widow (VIDEO/TWEET)



On Monday, Trumpkin radio host and former congressman Joe Walsh suggested that it ought to be open season on Myeshia Johnson, the wife of Army sergeant La David Johnson. Walsh thought that when Myeshia called out Trump for his outrageously rude behavior when he called her to offer condolences after her husband was killed in Niger, she had “gotten political” and was fair game.

While Walsh was kicked up, down, and sideways on both sides of the aisle, it says a lot about the state of our politics that we found ourselves wondering if someone was going to take him up on his suggestion to go after Johnson. Well, we didn’t have to wait long for someone to do so. And fittingly, it was a guy from one of the few right-wing outlets with lower standards than Walsh–Breitbart News.

In case you missed it, Myeshia gave her first public interview on Monday morning’s edition of “Good Morning America.” Watch here.

Myeshia said she was “very hurt and upset” that Trump struggled to remember her husband’s name. She also backed up Congresswoman Frederica Wilson’s contention that Trump said that her husband “knew what he was signing up for.”

On Tuesday’s edition of “Breitbart News Daily” on SiriusXM, Breitbart London editor Raheem Kassam weighed in on Myeshia’s interview. While speaking with “Charles,” a retired serviceman, Kassam was bewildered that we were still talking about Trump’s behavior on that call. He had a theory as to why this was still happening–there were certain elements who were “acting disgracefully and besmirching the name of a dead serviceman there.” From where he was sitting, “it ain’t President Trump doing that.”

When Charles mentioned that he’d served in the military for 16 years, Kassam asked him a personal question.

“How would you feel if you were killed in action and your wife or your girlfriend used that opportunity to attack the president of the United States?”

Charles didn’t hesitate, saying that it would be “inappropriate” for his wife or girlfriend to make such a move.


Kassam said with a straight face that he wasn’t attacking Myeshia, saying that she had free speech and “she could do what she wants.” Later, he mused that Myeshia had been “whipped into this frenzy” by Wilson and others, and as a result the whole thing had gone “off the rails.”

Okay, Raheem. I’ll play. You mean to tell me that when the president of the United States acts like a boor and a jerk to a Gold Star widow, that widow is attacking him by calling him on it. Oh, that’s right. At Breitbart, as in most of Trumpland, insisting that the president uphold basic standards of acceptable behavior amounts to a partisan attack.

And it says a lot about the kind of person you are when you can wag your finger at someone for daring to “attack the president of the United States,” then say in the next breath that you aren’t attacking that person. If you were trying to maintain plausible deniability, Raheem, it didn’t work.

Apparently Kassam has been taking a beating over his remarks, because he took to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon to insist that Wilson and other Democrats were the villains here.

Excuse me? How is calling out Trump’s callous behavior “using a dead soldier,” especially when multiple witnesses have come forward to say that Trump indeed acted like a jerk?


We’ve learned to expect very little from Breitbart. This is, after all, an outfit that sees fit to help Nazis and white supremacists normalize hate. But this has to be one of Breitbart’s lowest moments to date. The only thing we need to hear from Kassam or anyone else at Breitbart on this matter is a full and unreserved apology to Myeshia and her family. Let Kassam have it on Facebook and on Twitter.

(featured image courtesy Kassam’s Facebook)

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.