Retired Adm. William McRaven, who led the raid that took out Osama Bin-Laden, joined the voices of reason on Friday, slamming President Donald Trump for forcefully clearing peaceful protesters at Lafayette Park in Washington, DC, so he could walk over to a damaged church and take photos holding a Bible.
“You’re not going to use, whether it is the military or the National Guard or law enforcement, to clear peaceful American citizens for the president of the United States to do a photo op,” he said, according to Business Insider. “There is nothing morally right about that.”
“That’s just not right,” McRaven he added.
During the interview, McRaven also defended the many former military leaders who have spoken out this week, saying that it is “great to see the voices being raised and a little bit of sanity, hopefully, coming back to this very, very tragic situation.”
“I was very pleased to see Jim Mattis, and obviously Mike Mullen, and John Kelly come out and reinforce what we know to be the principles of the US military,” he said. “We all raise our right hands and swear an oath to the Constitution of the United States. It is not to the president of the United States. It is to the Constitution,” McRaven said. He said that it is “great to see the voices being raised and a little bit of sanity, hopefully, coming back to this very, very tragic situation.”