60 Minutes Under Fire for Interview With Eddie Gallagher: ‘This is a War Criminal’

Charlie NashMar 2nd, 2020, 11:11 am
 

60 Minutes came under fire on Sunday for airing a segment on retired Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was charged with stabbing a young ISIS prisoner to death and posing for a photo with his corpse — before President Donald Trump personally intervened on Gallagher’s behalf.

In the episode, CBS News showed off Gallagher’s “glory wall” of war memorabilia, which included the knife he allegedly used to stab the teenager to death and a photo with his platoon’s “KILL ‘EM ALL” motto on the frame.

A clip from the show on Twitter was quickly ratio’d receiving over 11,000 mostly negative replies against just 1,000 likes.

“What on earth was 60 Minutes thinking?” asked MSNBC contributor and former Obama White House staffer Ben Rhodes. CBS News did not respond to Mediaite’s request for comment.

In the interview with 60 Minutes, Gallagher denied stabbing the teenager, but confirmed the photo with his body was taken as a “trophy.”

After being asked whether he was “trying to make it look like” he killed the boy, Gallagher said, “I was trying to make it look tough, yeah. I know how bad it looks when it gets out into the public, which it never was supposed to.

“On a text he sent his friend along with the photo, which read, “Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife,” Gallagher claimed he was just joking.

“It was like a joke text. Dark humor,” he insisted, adding, “they ran a test on the knife, the sheath. No blood anywhere on it. And if you look at the picture close, there’s no blood on the knife. There’s no blood anywhere on me.”

Gallagher was acquitted of murder in the trial, after a medic said he killed the ISIS fighter by blocking his oxygen after Gallagher had stabbed him in the neck. Gallagher was convicted of posing with a dead body last year, after the president personally intervened on his behalf.

In December, Gallagher met with Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

“This is a war criminal and murderer pardoned by Trump. His own soldiers testified against him,” declared CNN contributor and New York Times contributing op-ed writer Wajahat Ali.

In January, the New York Times was also criticized for its coverage of Gallagher, and eventually deleted a tweet after being accused of promoting the ex-Navy SEAL’s merchandise.

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