Active Secretary of the Navy Modly resigns

[Bob Ross]

Washington (CNN)Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has submitted his resignation a day after leaked audio revealed he called the ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt "stupid" in an address to the ship's crew, according to a US official and a former senior military official.



The Navy and Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.

On Monday, Modly told the crew of the Roosevelt that their former commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, was either "too naive or too stupid" to be in command or that he intentionally leaked a memo to the media, in which Crozier warned about coronavirus spreading aboard the aircraft carrier and urged action to save his sailors, according to remarks obtained by CNN.

Late Monday night, Modly apologized in a statement for calling Crozier "stupid" in his earlier remarks.

"Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite," Modly said in his statement. "We pick our carrier commanding officers with great care. Captain 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. I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused."

www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/politics/modly-resign-crozier-esper-trump/index.html

What the heck?  Modly apologizes and resigns over his inappropriate comments?!  Has the man gone completely loco!?!

Everyone knows the proper action is to vehemently deny he said what he did despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

This man has no place in the Trump administration.  

[kadee79]

He should never have been there in the first place.  My retired Navy son has more experience than he had.

[teen persuasion]

"If he didn't think, in my opinion, that this information wasn't going to get out to the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either a) too naïve or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly said. "The alternative is that he did this on purpose."

"Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite," Modly said in his statement. "We pick our carrier commanding officers with great care. Captain 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. I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused."

So, if I'm parsing this correctly, he DIDN'T think he called the captain stupid or naive, he said he believed the captain either
A) was stupid/naive or
B) deliberately leaked message

Modly's using the exclusive OR, one or the other, not both. He believes B) is true, thus he couldn't possibly have meant A) is true.

And he apologized for not making this all more clear. Not an apology for what he actually said and did.


Bob, that sounds like a technical denial, to me.

[NastyWoman]

""If he didn't think, in my opinion, that this information wasn't going to get out to the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either a) too naïve or too stupid..."

Oh the irony

[jelloshots4all]

Dumb ass!  Broadcast a speech on a ship and not think anyone would record it?  Good riddance!!

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

My gut says that he was asked to resign.  After what happened with the SEAL last year, I think that the powers that be figured that they were on really thin ice and were just about to lose the entire military vote if they did not dial things back.  

I do have to wonder why he had to fly 8000 miles to Guam to berate the crew.  So wonder what that flight cost, as I am sure he didn't fly commercial.  

[sesfw]

So wonder what that flight cost,

I saw the $$$ amount somewhere yesterday.  Think it was around $234,000.