President Trump offered a blistering denunciation of ex-Navy Captain Brett Crozier, who commanded the USS Theodore Roosevelt during a coronavirus outbreak aboard the ship and was recently dismissed from his position.
Trump cited the captain’s actions, including a letter he sent to the Navy begging them to allow his ship to make an emergency landing in Guam so sailors could receive treatment. The Navy only allowed it after the letter was also leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“He wrote a letter. A five-page letter from a captain. And the letter was all over the place. That’s not appropriate, I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Trump said during his daily COVID-19 press conference.
“It looked terrible what he did. To write a letter. I mean this isn’t a class on literature. This is the captain of a massive ship … he shouldn’t be talking that way in a letter.”
The president also chided Crozier for allowing the ship to stop in Vietnam as the outbreak was growing worldwide and said he agreed “100%” with the Navy’s decision to oust him.
Earlier this week video of Crozier leaving the ship while his crewman cheered behind him went viral, promoting a question for Trump during the briefing, which was otherwise focused on the administration’s efforts to mitigate the deadly pandemic in the United States.