Retired Adm. William McRaven, who oversaw the Navy SEAL raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, is not completely closing the door to running for president.
McRaven, 63, was pressed on it during an interview on Tuesday by MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, who said there was a former “senior” government official they both know who wants him to commit to a White House bid.
“No. I’m firmly planted in Austin,” he said.
After Wallace said, “there was a man who ran for president from Austin once,” McRaven conceded there is always a chance.
“Yeah, there was. I guess you never say never. But the fact of the matter is, I absolutely have no plans to run for president,” he said with a chuckle. He added that “administration changes and somebody is interested in my support in a policy world” he might consider it.
McRaven took a stand against President Trump last year after he revoked the security clearance for former CIA Director John Brennan. Calling Brennan “a man of unparalleled integrity,” McRaven wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that it would be “an honor” for Trump to also take away his security clearance. After that August op-ed there was some buzz about McRaven running for president in 2020, which quickly died down.
McRaven is making the rounds to promote his new book titled Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations. This week he has cautioned Trump against pardoning soldiers convicted of war crimes, said Trump does not want a war with Iran, and dismissed the notion that millennials are “soft.”
“I am probably the biggest fan of the millennials you’ll ever meet,” McRaven said, adding that critics “talk about the entitled, the pampered, the soft millennials. And I’m quick to say, ‘Then you never saw them in a firefight in Afghanistan.'”
