Wall Street Journal 08_04_2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ***** Wednesday, April 8, 2020 |A

fronting the Navy.

Mr. Modly, a Naval Academy

graduate who once served as a

helicopter pilot, had brought

the kind of private industry ex-

pertise favored by the Trump

administration, formerly work-

ing for PricewaterhouseCoo-

pers’ global government and

public-services sector.

He became undersecretary

of the Navy in 2017 and last

year succeeded former Navy

Secretary Richard Spencer,

whom Mr. Esper dismissed af-

ter a disagreement with the

White House.

Mr. Trump pardoned Navy

SEAL Chief Petty Officer Ed-

ward Gallagher, who had been

cleared of war-crime charges in

Iraq in 2017 but convicted on

lesser ones. Mr. Trump’s deci-

sion led to the departure of Mr.

Spencer.

Earlier, in 2017, there were

four serious accidents involv-

ing Navy vessels, two of them

deadly, in which 17 sailors

were killed. Subsequent inves-

tigations into the accidents

concluded they pointed to

readiness, training and cul-

tural shortcomings.

“The contrast in leadership

stability between the Army and

the Navy is dramatic,” said

Mark Cancian, senior adviser

with the Center for Strategic

and International Studies, a

think tank, and a retired Ma-

rine colonel. “The Army has

had very stable leadership and

been able to implement a co-

herent program as a result. The

Navy leadership has been in

turmoil.”

is expected to depart in the
next day or two, officials said.
“He resigned on his own ac-
cord, putting the Navy and the
sailors above self,” Mr. Esper
said.
But Mr. Modly’s actions in
the past week angered sailors
and many U.S. lawmakers, who
demanded he resign.
“After mismanaging the
Covid-19 outbreak on the USS
Theodore Roosevelt, it became
obvious that Acting Secretary
Modly had forfeited his ability
to lead the Navy,” said Rep.
Adam Smith (D., Wash.), chair-
man of the House Armed Ser-
vices Committee.
Mr. Modly’s resignation
capped a month in which sail-
ors on the Theodore Roosevelt
were stricken by coronavirus
at sea, with the virus rapidly
spreading through the crew,
leading Capt. Brett Crozier,
the commander, to write and
distribute a memo last week
demanding support in getting
sailors off the carrier. After
the memo was leaked to news
organizations, Mr. Modly re-
lieved him of duty, saying
Capt. Crozier went outside the
Navy’s chain of command.
The removal of the captain
was controversial, but was seen
by many people within the mil-
itary and among some experts
and former officials as within
his prerogative as the civilian
head of the Navy.
But Mr. Modly then took the
unusual step over the weekend
of traveling to the carrier,
which now is at port in Guam,
and addressing the crew over
the ship’s loudspeakers, angrily
and sometimes profanely criti-
cizing the former commander.
That move fueled widespread
anger on the ship, at the Pen-
tagon and on Capitol Hill.
Mr. Modly issued a state-
ment later Monday standing
by his words. Later Monday,
Mr. Trump, aware of the out-
cry, called the remarks
“rough” and pledged to get in-
volved in the case.
Two hours later, Mr. Esper

ContinuedfromPageOne

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

398,

U.S. cases

1,430,

World-wide cases

12,

U.S. deaths

82,

World-wide deaths

22,

U.S. recoveries

301,

World-wide recoveries

Coronavirus Daily Update

As of 10:45 p.m. EDT April 7

Workers and volunteers loaded supplies into vehicles that lined up Tuesday at a food bank drive-through in San Antonio, Texas.

ERIC GAY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

demanded that Mr. Modly is-

sue a public apology, officials

said, and Mr. Modly did so late

Monday.

In a sign that he harbored

plans to continue making a

mark on the Navy, Mr. Modly

had hoped to name one or

more of a new class of frig-

ates, but was told that

wouldn’t be possible, people

familiar with the matter said.

At a White House news brief-

ing on coronavirus on Tuesday,

Mr. Trump, answering questions

about the carrier, said Mr.

Modly didn’t have to resign, and

that doing so was “unselfish.”

Capt. Crozier has declined to

discuss the coronavirus out-

break on his former vessel, or to

answer questions about his own

health.

Chief of Naval Operations

Adm. Mike Gilday initiated an

internal investigation into the

problems on the carrier and the

commander’s conduct. Those

findings, expected in coming

weeks, will be used to deter-

mine what ultimately might

happen to Capt. Crozier.

The departure of Mr. Modly

and the impending shift in the

leadership adds a new wrinkle

in a series of challenges con-

The resignation

followed a surge in

cases on the USS

Theodore Roosevelt.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, shown in February, came

under fire after he angrily criticized the Roosevelt’s former captain.

MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES

Navy

Official

Resigns

his fellow inspectors general.

During a Tuesday evening

news conference, Mr. Trump

said it is his prerogative to

choose inspectors general,

adding that Mr. Fine was nom-

inated by a Democratic presi-

dent. The president said he

doesn’t know Mr. Fine person-

ally and didn’t offer an expla-

nation for his decision.

Mr. Fine served as the Jus-

tice Department’s inspector

general beginning under Bill

Clinton. His tenure stretched

through the Bush administra-

tion and into the Obama ad-

ministration. Mr. Obama later

tapped him to serve as the

Pentagon’s inspector general.

an inspector general in recent

days. Last week, the president

fired the intelligence commu-

nity inspector general, Michael

Atkinson, who played a key

role last year in the run-up to

Mr. Trump’s impeachment.

In replacing Mr. Fine, the

president makes him ineligible

to serve as the head of the Pan-

demic Response Accountability

Committee. The committee,

which was created under the

stimulus law, is charged with

identifying waste and abuse as

the government implements the

provisions of the coronavirus-

response package. Mr. Fine was

appointed as the head of the

committee late last month by

President Trump replaced
the Pentagon’s acting inspector
general, who had been charged
with monitoring the roughly
$2 trillion pandemic stimulus
law, administration officials

said, the latest shake-up in a
bid by Mr. Trump to exert in-
creased control over personnel.
Mr. Trump’s removal of
Glenn Fine, a longtime federal
watchdog who has been at the
Pentagon since 2015, is the
second high-profile ousting of

ByBen Kesling,

Andrew Restuccia

andDustin Volz

drew Cuomo.

New Jersey, Illinois and Lou-

isiana also recorded their high-

est daily tolls from the virus on

Monday, with 232, 73 and 70

deaths, respectively

The higher number of

deaths comes despite signs the

outbreak was slowing in New

York, New Jersey and Louisiana

as the impact of stringent so-

cial-distancing measures began

to show. Still, the governors

urged residents to continue to

heed the restrictions. Source: Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering

The U.S. death toll from the
new coronavirus rose sharply,
with nearly 50% more people
killed Tuesday than any previ-
ous day in the epidemic, ac-
cording to a Wall Street Jour-
nal analysis of data from Johns
Hopkins University.

Between 8 p.m. Monday and
the same time Tuesday, 1,
people in the U.S. died from
Covid-19, the respiratory dis-
ease caused by the virus. The
previous record was set Satur-
day, when 1,320 died.
Contributing to the national
record, New York, New Jersey,
Louisiana and Illinois reported
their highest daily death tolls
Tuesday, even as officials in
some of the hard-hit states cau-
tiously advised their outbreaks
were starting to slow.
Confirmed infections in the
U.S. were more than double
that of any other nation, at
398,809, according to the Johns
Hopkins data. American deaths
from the virus rose to 12,895,

and 22,224 have recovered.

Globally, the number of con-

firmed cases rose to over 1.

million, while deaths topped

82,000, according to the Johns

Hopkins data.

President Trump said Tues-

day that his administration

would look into withholding

money from the World Health

Organization as the coronavirus

continued to spread. He said

the WHO had become “China-

centric” and criticized the

group for opposing his travel

restrictions on China.

The Trump administration

can’t unilaterally withhold U.S.

funding for the WHO, which is

appropriated by Congress. Mr.

Trump’s budget proposal for

fiscal 2021, released in Febru-

ary, called for reducing U.S.

funding for the organization by

half, but there is little indica-

tion that congressional leaders

would agree to such cuts.

New York state, the center

of the crisis in the U.S., re-

ported its highest number of

deaths in a single day, with

731 fatalities Monday. “A lot of

pain again today for many

New Yorkers,” said Gov. An-

U.S. Death Toll

Nears 13,

ByJennifer Calfas,

Chong Koh Ping

andDrew Hinshaw

identify political appointees at

government agencies who are

thought to be opposed to the

president’s agenda, adminis-

tration officials said.

Presidents generally have

unilateral authority to remove

inspectors general, but they

have traditionally avoided do-

ing so because they are seen

as independent watchdogs.

“Basically, the message that

has now been sent very loudly

and clearly throughout the

United States government, to

inspectors general and every-

body else, is don’t displease

this guy because you’re liable

to lose your job,” Sen. Angus

King (I., Maine) said.

visers have long accused offi-

cials throughout the sprawling

federal government, including

some inspectors general, of

working against Mr. Trump

and his team. After a bruising

impeachment fight that saw

several prominent administra-

tion officials provide damag-

ing testimony to Congress, the

president’s advisers are eager

to install people in key posi-

tions who are loyal to Mr.

Trump, according to people

close to the president.

Earlier this year, Mr. Trump

named a trusted aide, John

McEntee, as the head of the

White House’s personnel of-

fice, where he has sought to

Mr. Fine was chosen to head

the pandemic oversight com-

mittee by fellow inspectors

general—through the Council

of the Inspectors General on

Integrity and Efficiency, or CI-

GIE. CIGIE didn’t respond to a

request for comment.

The president and his ad-

Trump Removes Monitor Overseeing Stimulus Spending

The president has

long accused

officials of working

against him.

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