--- description: John Kelly said he was "stunned" by the Democratic congresswoman's criticism of President Trump's condolence call to the family of a soldier title: Read the Transcript of John Kelly Speaking About Fallen Soldiers image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6958b19d7cce9bcd/6988e2c24ee26258fd30f7af/john-kelly-donald-trump-fallen-soldiers-criticism.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Donald Trump](/tag/donald-trump/) ## Donald Trump Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Read the Transcript of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly Speaking About Fallen Soldiers by [Abigail Abrams](/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 19, 2017 11:34 PM CUT  White House Chief of Staff John Kelly answers questions during a press conference on Jan. 31, 2017 in Washington, D.C. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly answers questions during a press conference on Jan. 31, 2017 in Washington, D.C.Drew Angerer—Getty Images by [Abigail Abrams](/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 19, 2017 11:34 PM CUT White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on Thursday said he was “stunned” by the Democratic congresswoman who called President Donald Trump’s call with parents of a fallen soldier disrespectful. Earlier in the week, [Rep. Frederica Wilson criticized](http://time.com/4987048/trump-soldier-widow-la-david-johnson/ "undefined") the President for his comments to a widow of one of the four soldiers who were recently killed in Niger. Wilson said Trump told the [grieving widow](http://time.com/4988027/la-david-johnson-soldier-donald-trump-widow/ "undefined") that her husband “knew what he signed up for.” Since then, Trump has pushed back against this account, and on Thursday, Kelly strongly defended him. Invoking the story of his own son who was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, Kelly spoke emotionally and said he was “broken-hearted” that the Congresswoman used the death of a military member to criticize Trump. “I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning, and broken-hearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing,” Kelly said in the White House briefing room on Thursday, adding that the soldier understood his role when he enlisted. “He was where he wanted to be, exactly where he wanted to be, with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken.” Read the full transcript of his remarks below: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4990521/john-kelly-donald-trump-soldier-death-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4990521/john-kelly-donald-trump-soldier-death-transcript/"},"headline":"Read the Transcript of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly Speaking About Fallen Soldiers","datePublished":"2017-10-19T23:34:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T11:19:47.809Z","description":"The retired general said he was \"stunned\" by the Democratic congresswoman's criticism","url":"https://time.com/4990521/john-kelly-donald-trump-soldier-death-transcript/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime","john kelly"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6958b19d7cce9bcd/6988e2c24ee26258fd30f7af/john-kelly-donald-trump-fallen-soldiers-criticism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6958b19d7cce9bcd/6988e2c24ee26258fd30f7af/john-kelly-donald-trump-fallen-soldiers-criticism.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John Kelly Discusses Operational Implementation Of Trump Immigration Ban","caption":"John Kelly Discusses Operational Implementation Of Trump Immigration Ban","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4990521/john-kelly-donald-trump-soldier-death-transcript/","name":"Read the Transcript of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly Speaking About Fallen Soldiers"}}]}] ```