( UTV | WASHINGTON ) JActing Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday amid controversy over his attacks against a fired captain who raised alarms about the coronavirus on his ship.
Politico first reported that Modly has “offered” to resign, in the publication’s words, and that it’s unclear whether Defense Secretary Mark Esper will accept the resignation. That question was put to rest later Tuesday: Esper tweeted that he had accepted.
This morning I accepted Secretary Modly’s resignation. With the approval of the President, I am appointing current Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson as acting Secretary of the Navy. pic.twitter.com/FvfgOwuXw4
— @EsperDoD (@EsperDoD) April 7, 2020
Esper also confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that James McPherson, who serves as acting undersecretary of the Army, will replace Modly.
Pentagon spokesperson Christopher Sherwood told TPM earlier Tuesday afternoon that his office had not been informed of the resignation as the news broke. “We’re seeing the same reports you are but we haven’t received that information on this level,” he said in a call.
Last week, Modly fired Navy Captain Brett Crozier for emailing Navy leadership about enacting anti-coronavirus measures for his crew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which had close to 200 cases of COVID-19 onboard. Crozier himself tested positive for the disease several days ago.
Then the acting secretary came under fire on Monday after he ranted to the crew about how Crozier was either “too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this” or that he had intentionally sent the memo to draw media attention to the ship’s dilemma with the virus.