Who’s stupid? Top US Navy official sorry for blasting fired carrier captain who wanted to save his sailors from coronavirus
- US Navy’s top leader accused fired commander of being ‘too naive or too stupid’ to be in charge of an aircraft carrier
- USS Theodore Roosevelt is in port in Guam battling an outbreak of Covid-19 among its crew after captain’s plea
Hours after Donald Trump said he would weigh in on his acting US Navy secretary’s stinging rebuke of an aircraft carrier captain who had raised the alarm over the spread of the coronavirus on his ship, the secretary apologised.
Thomas Modly, the acting secretary, said in a statement on Monday night, said he regretted “any confusion this choice of words may have caused,” adding that he wanted to extend his apology to Captain Brett Crozier, “his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused.”
On Monday, according to CNN and other news organisations, Modly, in an audio address to the Roosevelt’s crew, said Crozier was “too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this.”
He also accused the former commander of a “betrayal of trust”.