Top administration officials including the acting Navy secretary, the secretary of defense, and Trump himself escalated their attacks over the weekend on a Navy aircraft carrier captain who expressed concern about protecting his crew from the coronavirus; but by Tuesday, the administration appeared to be backing down.
Dozens of the ship’s sailors, including the captain, have tested positive for Covid-19; and the ship, is docked in Guam, is being evacuated.
Captain Brett Crozier was fired last week for writing a letter complaining he couldn’t protect his crew from the spreading virus and felt their lives were being risked unnecessarily. His crew loudly cheered him as he disembarked from the ship in videos that have now gone viral.
What Capt. Crozier is guilty of, and got him in trouble with his civilian superiors, was making them look bad by suggesting the Trump administration’s bungled and disorganized response to the coronavirus pandemic is hurting military personnel, too.
The most virulent broadside against Crozier was fired Monday morning (April 6, 2020) by acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly, the administration official who relieved him. Speaking to the carrier’s crew via the ship’s P.A. system, Modly asserted that Crozier was “too naive or too stupid” to command the ship, and accused him of “betrayal,” which is a military court-martial offense.
“And I can tell you one other thing,” Modly fulminated. “Because he did that, he put it in the public forum and it is now a big controversy in Washington D.C.,” which of course is Crozier’s real crime. This echoed Trump’s remarks on Saturday (April 4, 2020), when Trump blasted Crozier’s letter as “terrible” and complained it “was [leaked] all over the place.” On Sunday (April 5, 2020), Defense Secretary Mark Esper defended the sacking of Crozier in more moderate terms, saying “that’s how we hold leaders accountable.”
By Monday, facing a torrent of criticism, the administration appeared to be backing off. That evening, Modly publicly apologized for the tone of his remarks, and he resigned on Tuesday (April 7, 2020). This occurred after Trump indicated he would get involved and voiced support for Capt. Crozier.
It’s unclear whether Modly was asked to resign, or did so of his own volition, but he had already been passed over for permanent appointment as Navy Secretary. Trump has chosen Kenneth Braithwaite, a retired rear admiral, for that position although Braithwaite hasn’t been formally nominated yet. Modly, who had been an undersecretary, has been the acting secretary since the previous Navy secretary, Richard V. Spencer, was fired last November.
There’s probably not much stigma to getting fired by Trump, though. Everybody who works for Trump gets fired.
Photo: Capt. Brett Crozier speaking to his aircraft carrier crew in 2015.