White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien fielded several questions about President Trump’s praise of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher after confidential video testimony showed the men who turned him in for alleged war crimes calling him “evil.”
Footage obtained by the New York Times last week revealed several SEALS recalling Gallagher’s behavior during a 2017 tour of Iraq, during which he was accused of shooting civilians and killing a teenage ISIS supporter, with one noting, “He was perfectly OK with killing anybody.” In response, Gallagher said he felt “sorry” for those who appeared in the video and accused them of lying.
During a Sunday morning appearance on ABC’s This Week, correspondent Jonathan Karl grilled O’Brien on the latest revelations, which came weeks after the president restored Gallagher’s rank.
“Were you aware of those details?” Karl asked. “Was the president aware of the details when he was pardoned?”
O’Brien noted that Trump “has the power to pardon and grant clemency,” but Karl continued to press him, pointing out that Gallagher’s fellow SEALs said he “got crazier and crazier. He was perfectly OK with killing anybody.”
“Do you find those comments troubling? Does the president?” Karl asked.
“It’s very troubling that we send folks out that have to make split-second decisions dealing with terrorists and bomb-makers in difficult decisions overseas,” O’Brien answered. “The president has said we’ll stand behind our warriors, we’re gonna have their backs. There was an investigation, and by the way, that’s a select group of SEALs. There were also many SEALs … that supported Chief Gallagher, that appealed to the president and asked for clemency.”
“We put these men and women in very tough situations and I think the president took that into account,” Robert O’Brien tells @jonkarl when pressed about Trump pardoning Navy SEAL Gallagher, who was called “toxic” and “evil” by fellow SEALs in new video. https://t.co/gJKGeVAu7L pic.twitter.com/zHd6bUK9mF
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) December 29, 2019
While Gallagher was acquitted of the war crime charges against him over the summer, he was found guilty of taking a photo of the corpse of an ISIS fighter. As a result, the Navy demoted him one rank, but Trump restored his rank in November. The Navy had considered further disciplining him by revoking his SEAL Trident pin but later decided against it.
