Former Vice President Joe Biden reportedly reached out to William McRaven, the admiral who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, after he rebuked President Trump.
McRaven had shown solidarity with former CIA Director John Brennan after Trump revoked his security clearance. The former admiral said it would be “an honor” if Trump revoked his clearance as well.
Axios reported on Thursday that Biden reached out to McRaven over the weekend after those comments.
“It is presumptuous of me to say, but I’m so incredibly proud of you. I saw up close your physical courage, including your incredible calm during planning for the Bin Laden raid,” Biden told McRaven, a person familiar with the matter revealed to Axios.
“As RFK said: ‘Moral courage is the rarer commodity than bravery in battle,’” Biden reportedly added, referencing Robert F. Kennedy. “I have never met anybody whose moral courage equaled their physical courage in your category. I’m proud to know you and be associated with you.”
{mosads}In an op-ed published by The Washington Post last Thursday, McRaven called Brennan a man of “unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him” a day after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that the president had stripped the security clearance from him.
Brennan, a former Obama administration official, had long been a vocal critic of Trump throughout his presidency.
“I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency,” McRaven wrote at the time.
He called Trump’s actions in his op-ed “McCarthy-era tactics” intended to “suppress the voices of criticism,” while adding that “criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you’d be.”
McRaven also has a history of criticizing the president and said in February that the president labeling the press the “enemy of the people” may be “the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.”