FlyerInHi; There is an aspect of your original comment that you are missing or avoiding dealing with, and it has to do with syntax and wording.
Note the importance on wording in your first section..
“Not only was he fired, but the Navy Secretary fired him to preempt Trump from doing so.”
as if Trumps firing of the captain was going to be a “fait accompli” by the president. Actual wording was
“I didn’t want to get into a decision where the president would feel that he had to intervene because the Navy couldn’t be decisive,”
from Modlys perspective. The second example is not a “fait accompli” on Trump firing the captain, and seems to support my contention that Modly was panicking and covering his butt because the president might look at firing Modly for not being decisive on dealing with COVID-19 issues under his command; so Modly effectively fires the person responsible for revealing that there are COVID-19 problems on board that are not being addressed.
