Acting Navy Sec. Apologizes for Comments Blasting Ousted Captain: I Don’t Think He’s ‘Naive and Stupid’

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 21: Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, participates in a discussion on defense strategy, and key initiatives in the FY 2020 budget, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, on February 21, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly has apologized after comments he made blasting a recently-ousted Navy captain.

Captain Brett Crozier was removed after sending out a letter requesting assistance over a coronavirus breakout on his ship. The letter ended up getting leaked to the press and Modly dismissed Crozier, who reportedly now has the coronavirus himself.

Modly spoke to sailors on that ship to address his decision, saying, “If he didn’t think that this information wasn’t going to get out into the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this. The alternative is that he did this on purpose.”

In audio of his remarks that got leaked, one sailor can be heard during that section remarking, “What the fuck?!”

Modly has now apologized in a statement sent out to the press tonight, in which he says, “I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid.”

Acting @SECNAV just issued an apology to the Navy for his comments today. pic.twitter.com/G7Q5YWigHK

— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) April 7, 2020

“I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship,” he continued. “I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused.”

He also apologizes to Crozier, his family, and the crew “for any pain my remarks may have caused.”