Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly stepped down on Tuesday, a US official and a former senior military official tell CNN.
Modly reportedly offered his resignation after a Sunday recording revealed him mocking Navy Capt. Brett Crozier as "stupid" and "naive" in an address to Crozier's former crew. Crozier was ousted from his post on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt after sounding the alarm about COVID-19 spread on the ship. Politico reported Tuesday that Modly had offered his resignation to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, but it was unclear if Esper would accept it.
Crozier had sent a stern four-page letter to his superiors last begging for help containing a new coronavirus outbreak on his ship, where around 150 to 200 sailors had reportedly tested positive out of his nearly 5,000-person crew. His letter leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, and Modly dismissed him over "a loss of trust and confidence." Modly then called Crozier "too naive or too stupid" to be running the ship in his leaked Sunday comments. He apologized on Monday, but many lawmakers had already called for his resignation.
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Modly had only been in his position for a few months after Esper fired former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer in November.
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