Arizona Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called President Obama’s commutation of Chelsea Manning’s sentence “a grave mistake that I fear will encourage further acts of espionage and undermine military discipline.”
“Her prison sentence may end in a few months’ time, but her dishonor will last forever,” the Republican said in a statement.
“It is a sad, yet perhaps fitting commentary on President Obama’s failed national security policies that he would commute the sentence of an individual that endangered the lives of American troops, diplomats, and intelligence sources by leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive government documents to Wikileaks, a virulently anti-American organization that was a tool of Russia’s recent interference in our elections,” McCain added.
“Thousands of Americans have given their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq upholding their oaths and defending this nation,” McCain said. “Chelsea Manning broke her oath and made it more likely that others would join the ranks of her fallen comrades.”
