Acting US Navy Secretary Apologizes For Calling Ousted Aircraft Carrier Captain ’Stupid’

By Staff, Agencies

Acting Secretary of the US Navy Thomas Modly apologized Monday night for calling the now-ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt "stupid" in an address to the ship's crew Monday morning.

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

Modly also accused Crozier of committing a "betrayal" and creating a "big controversy" in Washington by disseminating the warning so widely among Navy officials.

"It was a betrayal. And I can tell you one other thing: because he did that he put it in the public's forum and it is now a big controversy in Washington, DC," Modly said, according to a transcript of remarks Modly made to the crew, copies of which have been provided to CNN by multiple Navy officials.

Later Monday evening, after top members of the House Armed Services Committee began calling for his resignation, Modly apologized to the Navy for his comment.

"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."

Crozier had written to Navy leadership flagging his concerns about the Roosevelt's crew of more than 4,000, alerting them to the challenges of trying to contain the disease aboard the ship and urgently requesting that sailors be allowed to quarantine on land.