Trump says agrees with ouster of captain of Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier
Washington/UNI: US President Donald Trump says he supports the decision to remove US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt Capt Brett Crozier over the captain’s inappropriate email regarding the COVID-19 outbreak.
"Here we have one of the greatest ships in the world... with thousands and thousands of people and you had about 120 that were infected and I guess the captain stopped in Vietnam and people got off in Vietnam, perhaps you don’t do that in the middle of the pandemic," Trump said at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Saturday.
According to Trump, the captain wrote a '5-page letter' that was 'all over the place.'
"They made their decision, I didn’t make the decision, the Secretary of Defense was involved and a lot of people were involved. I thought it was terrible what he did, to write a letter? This isn’t a class of literature," Trump told reporters.
He stressed that the captain could have called and made certain suggestions but it was inappropriate for him to send a letter and to stop in Vietnam, where sailors got off the ship and then ended up being infected.
"I thought it was inappropriate for the captain of a ship … I agree with their decision [to remove the captain] 100 percent," Trump said.
On Thursday, US Navy Acting Secretary Thomas Modly announced he had made the decision to remove Capt Brett Crozier because he improperly sent an email about his concerns regarding the COVID-19 outbreak on the ship using channels that were not secure to convey confidential information.
"The secretary of defense supported the decision of the acting secretary of the Navy to remove the captain of the Roosevelt," Hoffman told a video press conference on Friday.
About 114 sailors on US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and more COVID-19 cases are expected, according to Modly.
US Congressmen Ted Lieu and Ruben Gallego on Friday wrote a letter to Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine urging him to open an investigation into the removal of Capt Brett Crozier.
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