Navy Admiral Who Oversaw Bin Laden Raid Demands Trump Revoke His Security Clearance: You’ve Humiliated the Nation

One day after President Donald Trump‘s decision to revoke ex-CIA Director John Brennan‘s security clearance, former Navy Admiral William McRaven demanded his be revoked, too, in a show of solidarity.

McRaven made the request in a fiery Washington Post op-ed Thursday, backing Brennan as “a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.”

McRaven himself held a prominent position in national defense, leading the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014, starting his tenure by overseeing the Navy SEAL operation that killed Osama bin Laden.

Being stripped of his clearance, McRaven said, would allow him to join the resistance to Trump’s presidency.

“Like most Americans, I had hoped that when you became president, you would rise to the occasion and become the leader this great nation needs,” he wrote, making it clear Trump had failed.

“Your leadership, however, has shown little of these qualities,” McRaven added. “Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation.”

McRaven also called out the president for his “McCarthy-era tactics,” which he assured Trump would do little to stifle his critics.

His remarks come on the heels of outrage from some of Trump’s opponents to his targeting of Brennan, the former CIA head calling the president’s actions a politically-charged effort to “scare others who might challenge him.”

[Image via screengrab]

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