Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden hits out at Trump for saying terror leader should have been killed sooner and attacking special forces' leader as 'Hillary supporter'

  • Robert O'Neill shot Osama bin Laden in dramatic raid that killed terror leader 
  • President Trump criticized the mission saying 'wouldn't it have been nice? to get bin Laden sooner 
  • Trump cast Navy Admiral Bill McRaven as a Hillary Clinton supporter although McRaven didn't endorse in 2016
  •  O'Neill tweeted that the mission to get bin Laden was 'bipartisan'  
  • Bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011, and reports indicated he'd been living there for years
  • Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell Morell tweeted that the CIA that did the “finding” and McRaven’s special forces did the “getting”

The U.S. Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden pushed back at PresidentDonald Trump after the president called his superior a Hillary Clinton 'fan' – saying the mission to take out the nation's top terror target was 'bipartisan.' 

Robert O'Neill, who was part of the SEAL TEAM 6 night-time raid that killed bin Laden and wrote in his book about firing the final shots, responded after Trump dismissed Navy Admiral Bill McRaven, who ran special operations command during the raid, as a 'Clinton backer' and an 'Obama backer.'

Trump also complained that bin Laden hadn't been taken out 'sooner' and inaccurately suggested he had called for doing so.

McRaven didn't endorse Clinton in 2016 and has responded that he is a 'fan' of both President Obama and President George W. Bush for upholding the 'dignity of the office.'

'The mission to get bin Laden was bipartisan,' O'Neill tweeted Monday. 'We all wanted to get him as soon as we could.'

O'Neill's tweet was taken as immediate pushback against President Donald Trump's comments

O'Neill's tweet was taken as immediate pushback against President Donald Trump's comments

'The mission to get bin Laden was bipartisan,' Navy SEAL O'Neill tweeted Monday. 'We all wanted to get him as soon as we could'

'The mission to get bin Laden was bipartisan,' Navy SEAL O'Neill tweeted Monday. 'We all wanted to get him as soon as we could'

O'Neill, who shot Osama bin Laden, said the SEALs who raided his compound, wanted to get there 'as soon as we could'

O'Neill, who shot Osama bin Laden, said the SEALs who raided his compound, wanted to get there 'as soon as we could'

O'Neill also backed up McRaven in an earlier tweet, writing: 'ADM McRaven was born to lead this mission. I’ll follow him anywhere. If only people heard the real speech he gave the Team.... '

Trump, in an interview with 'Fox News Sunday,' dismissed McRaven's criticism of his own attacks on the press as the 'enemy of the American people.'

Host Chris Wallace tried to ask Trump about McRaven's comment that his press attacks were the 'greatest threat to democracy' in his lifetime. 

'Hillary Clinton fan,' Trump interjected... 'He's a Hilary Clinton, uh, backer and an Obama-backer,' he labeled the retired admiral.

'Wouldn't it have been nice if we got Osama Bin Laden a lot sooner than that, wouldn't it have been nice?' Trump said.

Then he vented about bin Laden's living conditions despite a global manhunt. 

O'Neill wrote about his military exploits in his book 

O'Neill wrote about his military exploits in his book 

Retired Admiral Bill McRaven did not endorse anyone in the 2016 presidential race

Retired Admiral Bill McRaven did not endorse anyone in the 2016 presidential race

Trump took the argument further on in a Monday morning tweet, writing: 'Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did'

Trump took the argument further on in a Monday morning tweet, writing: 'Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did'

The president said it would have been 'nice' if the Navy Seals had been sent into kill bin Laden instead of letting him live in a 'nice' mansion in Pakistan (Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in this May 5, 2011)

The president said it would have been 'nice' if the Navy Seals had been sent into kill bin Laden instead of letting him live in a 'nice' mansion in Pakistan (Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in this May 5, 2011)

'You know, living - think of this - living in Pakistan, beautifully in Pakistan in what I guess they considered a nice mansion, I don't know, I've seen nicer. But living in Pakistan right next to the military academy, everybody in Pakistan knew he was there. And we give Pakistan $1.3 billion a year and they don't tell him,' Trump said.

McRaven told CNN after the interview aired: 'I am a fan of President Obama and President George W. Bush, both of whom I worked for. I admire all presidents, regardless of their political party, who uphold the dignity of the office and who use that office to bring the nation together in challenging times.'

He continued: 'I stand by my comment that the President's attack on the media is the greatest threat to our democracy in my lifetime. 

'When you undermine the people's right to a free press and freedom of speech and expression, then you threaten the Constitution and all for which it stands.'

Trump doubled down on his criticisms after a blowup over his comments to Fox.

'Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot,' Trump wrote. 

Trump has claimed on several occasions in 2015 that he 'predicted' the rise of bin Laden and terrorism broadly, that isn't born out by the text of his 2000 book that he references, which makes a single reference to bin Laden.

 'One day we’re told that a shadowy figure with no fixed address named Osama bin-Laden is public enemy number one, and U.S. jetfighters lay waste to his camp in Afghanistan. He escapes back under some rock, and a few news cycles later it’s on to a new enemy and new crisis,' Trump wrote at the time. 

The Washington Post pointed to its fact-check on Trump in 2015 as it took on his latest claims on Monday.  

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