The White House said Wednesday that Sen. John McCain “owes an apology” for saying that the Yemen raid last month wasn’t a success because a Navy SEAL lost his life.
McCain released a statement late Tuesday night saying that many of the objectives in the raid in Yemen, which killed 14 al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula terrorists and collected some intelligence, were met, but that it shouldn’t be deemed successful if an American died.
“I would not describe any operation that results in the loss of American life as a success,” McCain said.
Senior Chief William “Ryan” Owens was killed during the raid, and four other Americans were wounded as part of the raid. The U.S. military has acknowledged that civilians were likely killed and a V-22 Osprey crashed and was destroyed.
Asked about McCain’s statement during Wednesday’s briefing, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that the raid was “absolutely a success.”
“I think anyone who would suggest that it is not … a disservice to the life of Chief Ryan Owens,” Spicer said. “Anyone who would suggest otherwise doesn’t fully appreciate how successful that mission was. What the information that they were able to retrieve was. And how that will help prevent future terrorist attacks.”
“I think anyone who undermines the success of that raid owes an apology and disservice to the life of Chief Owens,” he continued. “The raid, the action that was taken in Yemen was a huge success. American lives will be saved because of it. Future attacks will be prevented.”
On Feb. 2, Spicer told reporters the operation was a success “by all standards.”
“It’s hard to ever call something a complete success when you have the loss of life or people injured,” Spicer told reporters. “But I think when you look at the totality of what was gained to prevent the future loss of life here in America and against our people and our institutions, I think it was a successful operation by all standards.”
