After Captain Brett Crozier was relieved of his duties — an act that was backed by the Trump administration — he left the USS Theodore Roosevelt with hundreds of sailors cheering him on the deck to applaud his concerns about the spreading coronavirus on his ship in a letter that was leaked to the media. The appalling decision to fire Cozier for sending out a dire warning about the outbreak onboard the vessel has been widely criticized. Basically, Crozier had a choice between his career and saving the men and women on his ship.
The massive COVID-19 outbreak is showing the best and worst in society. Crozier is the best, and Trump’s acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly is one of the worst in society. He displayed that today as he slammed Crozier to the crew of the ship, calling the wrongly fired Captain “stupid” and “naive.”
Modly’s speech did not go down well with the crew, according to audio published by Task & Purpose. A flabbergasted sailor can be heard shouting, “What the fuck?!” after Modly’s “stupid” and “naive” remark.
Another sailor chimed in to support Crozier, yelling out, “He was trying to help us!” after Modly complained that their former Captain’s actions had created a “big controversy in Washington, D.C.” that has made Modly’s life difficult by creating the narrative of “a martyr CO, who wasn’t getting the help he needed.”
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
Modly went on to accuse Crozier of committing a “betrayal” of the sailors on board his ship, and that, too, didn’t go down very well with the crew.
Listen:
Modly also claimed in true Trumpian-style that all journalists are biased and they will use any information to embarrass the Navy and “to embarrass you.”
After the Trump administration fired Crozier, he was cheered by his crew. In contrast, Edward Gallagher, the former Navy SEAL who was prosecuted for war crimes that the president pardoned, was not respected by the SEALS who testified against him.
After Crozier’s exit, he tested positive for COVID-19. The Trump administration tried to demean Crozier simply because he wanted to save lives, but they created a hero that we so direly needed during these dark times.
Featured image via US Naval Institute/Flickr under Creative Commons 2.0/Political Tribune gallery
Like what you see here? Join the discussion on Facebook over at Americans For Sanity!
