WASHINGTON: In an extraordinary broadside punctuated with profanity, the Navy’s top leader accused the fired commander of the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt of being “too naive or too stupid” to be in charge of an aircraft carrier. He delivered the criticism to sailors who had cheered the departing skipper last week.
Hours after the remark was widely reported in the news media, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly issued a written public apology, saying he does not believe Capt. Brett E. Crozier is stupid or naive.
“I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused,” Modly wrote late Monday evening, referring to his speech aboard the Roosevelt on Sunday. “I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused.”
According to a person familiar with the conversation, Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s staff told Modly he must apologize. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.
Modly had flown to Guam over the weekend and went aboard the carrier to deliver a lengthy and passionate speech. Crew members are being taken off the ship to be tested for the coronavirus. At least 173 sailors aboard the ship have tested positive, as of Monday, and about 2,000 of the 4,865 crew members had been taken off. The Navy has offered no estimate of when the ship might return to duty.
While skewering Crozier, Modly also admonished the crew. He suggested that by cheering Crozier when he departed the carrier last week, they were overlooking their most basic duty to defend US interests.
“So think about that when you cheer the man off the ship who exposed you to that,” he said. “I understand you love the guy. It’s good that you love him. But you’re not required to love him.”
President Donald Trump on Monday said he may get involved, agreeing that Modly’s criticism of Crozier was “a rough statement.” He said Crozier made a mistake when he sent a memo to several people laying out his concerns about the crew and the virus. The memo was leaked to the media.
Trump said Crozier had a good career prior to this incident, adding, “I don’t want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.”
Modly relieved Crozier of command of the ship last week, saying he had lost confidence in him for having shown “extremely poor judgment” in widely distributing the memo pleading for an accelerated evacuation of the crew to protect their health. The dismissal quickly turned into a hot political issue, with Democrats saying Crozier was wrongly fired for defending his sailors, and Trump denouncing Crozier and backing Modly.
In his apology Monday night, Modly said he believes Crozier is “smart and passionate.”
“I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship,” Modly wrote.
Speaking on the ship, Modly urged the crew to stop complaining about their predicament, which he said made the Navy look weak. He suggested that some aboard the Roosevelt, including Crozier, had forgotten what matters most.
“It is the mission of the ship that matters,” he said. “You all know this, but in my view your Captain lost sight of this and he compromised critical information about your status intentionally to draw greater attention to your situation.”
US officials said Navy leaders, including Adm. Mike Gilday, chief of naval operations, argued that an investigation should be done before taking action. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The Sunday comments by Modly added fuel to the political fire, with at least one member of Congress urging he be fired.
An unofficial transcript of Modly’s remarks, as well as an audio recording, circulated widely on the Internet Monday — demonstrating the slippery landscape that Modly accused Crozier of failing to navigate.
Modly, a 1983 Naval Academy graduate, became the acting Navy secretary last November after Richard Spencer was ousted from the position. Trump last month nominated retired Rear Adm. Kenneth Braithwaite, the current ambassador to Norway, to be the next Navy secretary.
In his remarks aboard the Roosevelt, Modly raised issues likely to please Trump. He accused the news media, for example, of manipulating a political agenda to divide the country and embarrass the Navy. He said China “was not forthcoming” about coronavirus when it began spreading there months ago, echoing Trump’s oft-repeated statement that China could have done more to prevent a pandemic.
And Modly invoked the name of Trump’s chief Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, noting that the former vice president had said Modly’s decision to fire Crozier was almost criminal. “I assure you it was not,” Modly said.
Modly said Crozier should have known his letter would leak to the media, allowing information about the ship’s compromised condition to be published. If Crozier didn’t think this would be the result, he was “too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this.”
He also accused Crozier of betraying his duty as an officer. “And I can tell you one other thing, because he did that he put it in the public’s forum and it’s now become a big controversy in Washington D.C., and across the country,” Modly said.
Shortly after reports of Modly’s accusations against Crozier began circulating in the news media Monday morning, some Democrats fired back.
“Based on the transcript I’ve read, Secretary Modly’s comments were completely inappropriate and beneath the office of the Secretary of the Navy,” Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said in a statement. “It’s deeply disappointing that he would deliver a speech on board a US aircraft carrier suggesting that Captain Crozier might be ‘stupid’ and bashing the media for trying to report the truth. These dedicated sailors deserve better from their leadership.”
Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat and Navy veteran, called for Modly to be fired, saying his remarks show he is “in no way fit” to lead the Navy.
Asked Monday afternoon whether Esper still had full confidence in Modly, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman declined to discuss the matter.
Gilday has ordered an investigation into the matter, and the report by Adm. Robert Burke, the vice chief of naval operations, was initially expected Monday. Gilday has approved an extension and the report is now expected by week’s end.
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Navy leader calls fired USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier captain ‘naive’ or ‘stupid’
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Navy leader calls fired USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier captain ‘naive’ or ‘stupid’
- ‘I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused’
- acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly urged the USS Theodore Roosevelt crew to stop complaining about their predicament
Donald Trump, once unstoppable, hits snag after snag ahead of State of the Union address
- The US president is unlikely to back down in his State of the Union address
- His boasts will have less sting on Democrats, and world leaders, who have been bulldozed by his agenda
WASHINGTON: For a year, Donald Trump has governed the United States with little standing in his way.
Now, as the president prepares for his State of the Union address on Tuesday, he’s weighed down with Supreme Court reversals on tariffs, souring public opinion on his immigration crackdown and mounting economic concerns.
Trump is unlikely to back down in his speech, a primetime American political institution where the president is invited by Congress to present his accomplishments and lay out his agenda.
But his boasts will have less sting on Democrats — and world leaders — who have up to this point been bulldozed by his agenda.
On Friday, the Supreme Court delivered a sharp rebuke of his use of tariffs, which he slapped on countries often arbitrarily via a simple order on social media in an effort to gain leverage over diplomatic matters sometimes wholly unrelated to trade.
The same day, the government data showed the US economy expanded at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the October to December period — significantly below the 2.5 percent pace that analysts had forecasted for the quarter.
Polls meanwhile show growing dissatisfaction with the cost of living as well as Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Cost-of-living concerns
Trump’s strategy so far on inflation has been to cede no ground.
“I’ve won affordability,” Trump said during a speech in the southeastern state of Georgia on Thursday.
But “you cannot out-message the economy. People know what they are spending,” Todd Belt, a political science professor at George Washington University, said.
“People become very resentful when being told something they know is not true,” he said — which applies to both the cost of living but also the crackdown on immigrants, which many Americans had falsely believed would focus on deporting violent criminals.
American voters have proven extremely sensitive to economic issues, which in part sunk Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden but now threaten Republicans.
As midterms approach in November, the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be up for grabs.
Trump has already warned that if Democrats take control they could try to impeach him.
Backing down?
Even the normally bombastic Trump has been cowed in recent days, including when a racist video of Barack Obama — the country’s first Black president — was posted onto his Truth Social account.
The White House tried to brush off the issue before claiming that an unnamed aide posted it, as even loyal members of Congress broke ranks to criticize the president.
After federal immigration agents shot and killed two US citizens during their wide-sweeping operations in Minneapolis, the administration announced it was scaling back the deployment in the city, which was the scene of mass protests.
On the international scene, a US-Denmark-Greenland working group has been established to discuss Washington’s security concerns in the Arctic, but Trump has had to dial back his threats to seize Greenland.
He has imposed an across-the-board 10 percent tariff on imports into the United States after the Supreme Court rebuffed his previous tariffs Friday — but that still means some nations are now trading at reduced rates than they had agreed to under his previous levies.
The administration has vowed to find other ways to implement tariffs as it decried the court’s “lawlessness.”
In the meantime, challenges to Trump’s policies are slowly winding their way through the courts.
But while Trump has been chastened, the House and the Senate still remain in Republican control — for now. And Trump himself will be in the White House until 2029.
Now, as the president prepares for his State of the Union address on Tuesday, he’s weighed down with Supreme Court reversals on tariffs, souring public opinion on his immigration crackdown and mounting economic concerns.
Trump is unlikely to back down in his speech, a primetime American political institution where the president is invited by Congress to present his accomplishments and lay out his agenda.
But his boasts will have less sting on Democrats — and world leaders — who have up to this point been bulldozed by his agenda.
On Friday, the Supreme Court delivered a sharp rebuke of his use of tariffs, which he slapped on countries often arbitrarily via a simple order on social media in an effort to gain leverage over diplomatic matters sometimes wholly unrelated to trade.
The same day, the government data showed the US economy expanded at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the October to December period — significantly below the 2.5 percent pace that analysts had forecasted for the quarter.
Polls meanwhile show growing dissatisfaction with the cost of living as well as Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Cost-of-living concerns
Trump’s strategy so far on inflation has been to cede no ground.
“I’ve won affordability,” Trump said during a speech in the southeastern state of Georgia on Thursday.
But “you cannot out-message the economy. People know what they are spending,” Todd Belt, a political science professor at George Washington University, said.
“People become very resentful when being told something they know is not true,” he said — which applies to both the cost of living but also the crackdown on immigrants, which many Americans had falsely believed would focus on deporting violent criminals.
American voters have proven extremely sensitive to economic issues, which in part sunk Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden but now threaten Republicans.
As midterms approach in November, the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be up for grabs.
Trump has already warned that if Democrats take control they could try to impeach him.
Backing down?
Even the normally bombastic Trump has been cowed in recent days, including when a racist video of Barack Obama — the country’s first Black president — was posted onto his Truth Social account.
The White House tried to brush off the issue before claiming that an unnamed aide posted it, as even loyal members of Congress broke ranks to criticize the president.
After federal immigration agents shot and killed two US citizens during their wide-sweeping operations in Minneapolis, the administration announced it was scaling back the deployment in the city, which was the scene of mass protests.
On the international scene, a US-Denmark-Greenland working group has been established to discuss Washington’s security concerns in the Arctic, but Trump has had to dial back his threats to seize Greenland.
He has imposed an across-the-board 10 percent tariff on imports into the United States after the Supreme Court rebuffed his previous tariffs Friday — but that still means some nations are now trading at reduced rates than they had agreed to under his previous levies.
The administration has vowed to find other ways to implement tariffs as it decried the court’s “lawlessness.”
In the meantime, challenges to Trump’s policies are slowly winding their way through the courts.
But while Trump has been chastened, the House and the Senate still remain in Republican control — for now. And Trump himself will be in the White House until 2029.
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