Retired Army General: Trump is ‘acting like an 8th grader’ in attacking ex-Navy SEAL who led bin Laden operation

Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey said Monday that President Trump acted “like an eighth grader” by attacking the former Navy SEAL who oversaw the operation that killed Osama bin Laden.

“There’s actually a comical aspect to this,” McCaffrey said while speaking on MSNBC. 

{mosads}He noted that retired Adm. William McRaven is “widely respected” and the epitome of an American hero, before adding that he was always apolitical while fulfilling his duties. 

But McRaven had become an outspoken critic of the president, and McCaffrey said that “his attacks on Mr. Trump must have hurt badly.”

“And now [Trump’s] acting like an eighth grader with this counterattack,” he stated. 

His comments came only a day after Trump dismissed McCraven as a “Hillary Clinton fan” and an “Obama-backer” in an interview with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. 

Trump also questioned why it took so long for the U.S. to find bin Laden, who was killed in a 2011 operation in Pakistan. McRaven was vice admiral at the time of the 2011 raid.

“Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that, wouldn’t it have been nice?” he asked. 

McRaven responded to the attacks from Trump by standing by his previous criticism of him, saying that what he called Trump’s attacks on the media are “the greatest threat to our democracy in my lifetime.”

“When you undermine the people’s right to a free press and freedom of speech and expression, then you threaten the Constitution and all for which it stands,” he said, while also noting that he did not support a presidential candidate in the 2016 election. 

Multiple current and former U.S. officials have condemned Trump since his comments were aired. Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling called them “disgusting.”

But the president defended his criticism on Monday, tweeting that the U.S. “should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did.”