Biden takes fire from ex-Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill after Democratic hopeful says Trump unfit to command troops
Soon after Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden slammed President Donald Trump over his clearing three military personnel accused or convicted of war crimes, former Navy SEAL Robert O’Niell attacked the former, telling him “how dare you…”
On Sunday, November 17, Biden said Trump’s act of pardoning the accused or convicted service members betrayed the rule of law and the values that make the US exceptional. He even said that Trump is “not fit to command” the US troops.
Last Friday, November 15, Trump pardoned Army Special Forces Major Mathew Golsteyn and Army Lt Clint Lorance besides restoring the rank of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher. Their acts included killing a suspected Taliban bomb maker, taking photographs of an Islamic State fighter’s corpse, and killing two civilians. In defense of his action, Trump said he intervened because he wanted the American troops fighting overseas to have that confidence.
However, O’Neill’s criticism of Biden did not emanate from a political reason. The former Navy SEAL member who claimed to have fired the bullet(s) that nailed Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden during a raid in Pakistan’s Abbottabad in May 2011, has been upset with the former vice president over his stand and words related to the mission. And, in his latest tweet attacking Biden, he brought it up again. The 43-year-old O’Neill said in his tweet that Biden was not in favor of the mission and that he gave the credit of eliminating Bin Laden to SEAL Team Six when they did it themselves.
O'Niell has blasted Trump in the past
In February 2018, O’Neill blasted President Trump for planning a military parade in DC. Being impressed with the Bastille Day events in France in 2017, Trump wanted to have a military parade in the US as well and O’Neill, who had dinner with Trump in October last year at the White House, trashed the idea as “third world bullshit."