Trump “Greatest threat to democracy” says Commander of bin Laden raid

2/24/2017

Former Navy SEAL and four-star Admiral, William McRaven, recently stated that Donald Trump’s description of the media as “the enemy of the American people,” is the “greatest threat to democracy” he’s ever seen.  McRaven was the Commander who oversaw the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. He knows a thing or two about threats to democracy.

McRaven retired from the military in 2014.  On Tuesday, he was invited to speak at his alma mater, The University of Texas, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism.   “We must challenge this statement and this sentiment that the news media is the enemy of the American people,” McRaven said, according to the Daily Texan. “This sentiment may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.”  “To be a good leader, you have to be a good communicator,” he added. “As a leader, you have to communicate your intent every chance you get, and if you fail to do that, you will pay the consequences.”

In a subsequent blog post, McRaven elaborated on the threats he’s seen over six decades, including the Cold War, the Vietnam War and terrorism.  “In my sixty years, most of the serious threats to our nation have come from the outside,” he wrote.

“While at times, these external pressures encouraged some within our government to adopt a barricade mentality — hiding information from the public, acting secretly outside the bounds of the law, and encouraging behavior that had an extralegal feel to it — never has the government openly challenged the idea of a free press.”

He added:  “The news media have not always been kind to me. However, I can tell you — as someone who has been to 90 countries and spoken to the press in almost all of them — the United States has the finest press corps in the world, bar none.”

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017