President Trump does not want to see the career of Navy Capt. Brett Crozier “destroyed” because of his decision to speak out about the coronavirus aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
During a press conference on Monday, Trump said that he may “get involved” in the Navy’s handling of Crozier’s case after he was fired from his role as commander of the ship. In a series of questions about Crozier’s situation, Trump said he believes the captain made a mistake by speaking to the press rather than following the military chain of command but noted that he doesn’t want the mistake to ruin Crozier’s career.
“He’s the captain of a ship. He’s a very important person of a very expensive ship, a nuclear-powered ship. He shouldn’t be writing letters like that. But it happens. Sometimes I’ll write a letter that I’ll say ‘I wish I didn’t send it.’ Not too often, but it happens,” he said.
Trump later added, “I am going to look into it, and I’m going to see maybe we can do something because I’m not looking to destroy a person’s life, who’s had an otherwise stellar career, as I understand it. I looked at his file just now because I’ve been seeing what’s going on. If we can save a person’s career — I don’t mind going after a person when they did something wrong, but this was a mistake.”
The president outlined Crozier’s impressive resume and noted that the captain has a file filled with accomplishments. Trump said that he doesn’t want to see the captain’s actions from the past week ruin the remainder of his career.
“He made a mistake,” Trump said. “And maybe we are going to make that mistake, not destroy his life.”
