Gary Schmitt, a national security expert with the conservative American Enterprise Institute reacted to the US president's comments about the assassination of the al-Qaeda commander, the Hill reported.
“It’s certainly not going to help him. Most of the folks in the military are there voluntarily, they're career, they’re not just there for during the term of one president. They have a good sense that they’ve dedicated themselves to a certain life and the president seems to be suggesting that, outside anything else, they’ve been fooled,” Schmitt said.
"It can’t help but shake the military’s judgment about his judgment," he added.
Robert O'Neill -- a former Navy SEAL who has publicly said he killed bin Laden in the 2011 raid ordered by former President Obama -- chastised the president this week for promoting the unfounded claims.
“Very brave men said [goodbye] to their kids to go kill Osama bin Laden. We were given the order by President Obama. It was not a body double. Thank you Mr. President.” O’Neill, who has publicly supported Trump in the past, tweeted on Tuesday.
“I know who I killed, homie. Every time,” said O'Neill, who was a member of the SEAL Team Six that raided bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Trump's troubles with the military escalated last month after The Atlantic reported that he called US troops who died in battle “suckers” and “losers.”
Referring to Trump’s retweeting a false conspiracy theory about the Bin Laden raid, GOP Rep. Denver Riggleman also noted, “It’s a dangerous tweet and that’s the kind of things we cannot do.”
Trump on Tuesday retweeted an account linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory that promoted the unfounded allegation that bin Laden is still alive. The account has since been suspended, but the following day Trump retweeted a video pushing baseless claims about bin Laden's death.
“That was an opinion of somebody and that was a retweet. I'll put it out there. People can decide for themselves,” Trump said of his retweets during his town hall appearance on NBC Thursday night.
FA/PR
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