Posted on 06/02/2019 1:46:13 PM PDT by Ennis85
The Pentagon sent a stern message to the White House over the weekend after it was confirmed officials directed the United States Navy to minimize the presence of the USS John McCain during President Donald Trump's recent visit to Japan.
What did the Pentagon say?
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan directed his staff over the weekend to reaffirm that the U.S. military will not be "politicized," Reuters reported.
"Secretary Shanahan directed his chief of staff to speak with the White House military office and reaffirm his mandate that the Department of Defense will not be politicized," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Colonel Joe Buccino said. "The chief of staff reported that he did reinforce this message."
While traveling to Seoul on Sunday, Shanahan reaffirmed his message to reporters accompanying him on the trip.
"There is no room for politicizing the military," Shanahan said.
What is the background?
On Saturday, the U.S. Navy confirmed the White House requested the USS John McCain be moved during Trump's visit to Japan, NBC News reported.
"A request was made to the U.S. Navy to minimize the visibility of USS John S. McCain, however, all ships remained in their normal configuration during the President's visit," Rear Admiral Charlie Brown, chief of information, told NBC.
According to Reuters, the request originated in the White House military office. Apparently, staffers believed the optics would not be good for the president since McCain was one of his biggest political rivals.
However, as Brown confirmed, senior Navy leadership refused comply with the request.
What is the White House saying?
On Sunday, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney downplayed the incident, calling the request "not ... unreasonable."
https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1135176786873081857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1135176786873081857%7Ctwgr%5E393039363b636f6e74726f6c&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fres%2Fcommunity%2Ftwitter_embed%2F%3Fiframe_id%3Dtwitter-embed-1135176786873081857%26created_ts%3D1559482211.0%26screen_name%3DMeetThePress%26text%3DWATCH%253A%2BActing%2BWhite%2BHouse%2BChief%2Bof%2BStaff%2BMick%2BMulvaney%2Btells%2BChuck%2BTodd%2Bthat%2Bmoving%2Ba%2BNavy%2Bship%2Bout%2Bof%2Bsight%2Bfrom%2Bt%25E2%2580%25A6%2Bhttps%253A%252F%252Ft.co%252FW5ZvDSw0DM%26id%3D1135176786873081857%26name%3DMeet%2Bthe%2BPress
I don’t know, but re-christening a warship is considered a death sentence for the ship herself, meaning it will be destroyed/sunk in accidents/battle.
This happened in US history: WW2 the “Jeep” carrier USS Midway was re-christened the USS St. Lo and she was sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Renaming a warship (within the same navy) is a serious no-no.
It’s named after Admiral McCain and Admiral McCain. Not Senator McCain.
And why any of this hit the press is a good question. Someone needs to be demoted to the South Pole.
President Trump should ream these people a new one. The real "bad optics" is them doing this without an order from the President. God protect him from people like these who "want to help him".
No one
McCain disrespected his Commander in Chief, subverted efforts to control the border, voted for Obamacare, criticized all efforts to support and defend the nation while in the US Senate. I doubt there could be any bad luck worse than calling a ship after the unmitigated disaster that was John McCain.
Seems to me the MSM practices “Propaganda/Fake News”, and calls it journalism, and “The Blaze” practices what was once upon a time called “Yellow Journalism”.
Didn’t Obama have the crucifix covered when he spoke at Georgetown?
It was named for his grandfather, Adm. John S. McCain Sr., then his father, Adm. John S. McCain Jr. was added and only recently was Sen. John S. McCain III added.
Tail wagging dog.
I want to know who in the White House thought this was a good idea in the first place. I can’t believe that Trump knew. He’s smart enough to know that the US Military is probably his strongest bloc of supporters an,d regardless of how her personally feels about the muchly unlamented Sen. John McCain, 1) the ship was named after that cretin’s father/grandfather, and 2) the sailors assigned to serve aboard her deserve as much recognition as any other squid in the Navy.
This is such a big deal! Where are my pearls? I need to clutch them, and gasp at the horror!
Shanahan might want to rethink that one.
The US military has been among the leading components of political/social experimentation for most of the past 60 years.
No kidding. The staffers who did this need to be keel hauled.
Stern warning my A$$. This if a BS fake new story if I ever heard one. No one in the military that values their job would even think about doing something like this.
> A tempest in a teapot.
Fake news by any other name is still fake news.
;)
IIRC, Benedict Arnold was a war hero, too.
It is very easy to orient the stage so only things behind POTUS will be in the camera shot.
being stripped of their commissions for the good of the service would be a more appropriate punishment, imo.
“Why cannot DJT find some retired general...”
I’m thinking of the admiral (?) who was going to defy orders to stand down and send help to the Benghazi fiasco and a junior somebody ratted him out and stopped the rescue. The the admiral (?) was fired.
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