When Navy Captain Brett Crozier was ousted from his position earlier this month for publicizing the coronavirus outbreak aboard his vessel, crew members on the USS Theodore Roosevelt chanted his name as he exited the aircraft carrier, according to footage shared on social media sites.
Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif. - 3rd District) said the cheering showed that the carrier's crew wanted him to stay and that the captain should be reinstated.
"The sailors on that ship, they thought he was the best. They wanted him to remain on the ship, you can tell by the way they cheered," the congressman from California told Cheddar on Monday. "Bring him back. Let him get the ship back in a healthy situation."
Garamendi, who is also chair of the House Armed Services Subcommittee, said Crozier's firing was "shameful, absolutely shameful, and obviously very, very detrimental to the ship itself," pointing to the ship's status, currently docked in Guam, with nearly 600 cases onboard and one death reported on Sunday.
As the novel coronavirus spread throughout his ship and his pleas for evacuation were ignored, Capt. Crozier sent a letter to 20 Navy personnel asking for help. He was fired after allegedly breaking the chain of command.
Garamendi said Capt. Crozier was "absolutely correct," and the Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, who has since resigned following a profanity-laden diatribe against Crozier that became publicized, was "absolutely wrong." Garamendi said "we believe that it was the president who actually ordered the firing, the Acting Secretary carried it out."
Garmendi isn't alone in wanting Capt. Crozier reinstated. More than 350,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org to have the captain restored to his position.
"My understanding is [Defense Secretary] Sec. [Mark] Esper is considering" reinstating Capt Crozier, Garamendi added.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
