'Black lives matter': Navy SEAL who oversaw bin Laden raid says he voted for Joe Biden

• Retired Adm. William McRaven wrote an op-ed article Monday in The Wall Street Journal saying he held certain conservative viewpoints but also believed in ideas like "Black lives matter."
• He wrote that he voted for the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, because "we need a president for all Americans, not just half of America."
• McRaven has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, who he has accused of harming American values and tearing down US institutions.

Retired Adm. William McRaven, a former US Navy SEAL commander who served as the head of US Special Operations Command, wrote an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal on Monday in which he said he voted for Joe Biden.

McRaven described himself as a "pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, small-government, strong-defense and a national-anthem-standing conservative" but said the US was no longer a country that set an example of democracy.

While McRaven aligned himself with those conservative ideals, he also said "we need a president for all Americans, not just half of America," adding: "I also believe that black lives matter, that the Dreamers deserve a path to citizenship, that diversity and inclusion are essential to our national success, that education is the great equalizer, that climate change is real and that the First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy."

McRaven, who like some other military leaders is outspoken on the importance of international alliances, stressed that the US's influence had been on the decline.

"Now, the world no longer looks up to America," McRaven wrote. "They have been witness to our dismissiveness, our lack of respect and our transactional approach to global issues. They have seen us tear up our treaties, leave our allies on the battlefield and cozy up to despots and dictators."

"They have seen our incompetence in handling the pandemic and the wildfires," McRaven added, referring to the country's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the record-breaking wildfires. "They have seen us struggle with social injustice. They no longer think we can lead, because they have seen an ineptness and a disdain for civility that is beyond anything in their memory."

McRaven, who did not specifically name President Donald Trump, ended the article by saying "I voted for Joe Biden," the Democratic presidential nominee.

McRaven has been a vocal critic of the president. He has given interviews and written numerous opinion articles expressing great frustration with the policies and practices of Trump and his administration, everything from the president's hostile responses to critics to his targeting of long-standing US institutions.

In 2017, he characterized Trump's repeated criticisms of the media as "the greatest threat to democracy" in his lifetime. The following year, he said Trump had "embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage, and, worst of all, divided us as a nation." In 2019, he wrote an article that said "our republic is under attack from the president," arguing that Trump was harming the "nation's principles."

This year, McRaven sharply criticized the forceful clearing of Lafayette Park in Washington, DC, by law enforcement for a presidential photo op at a church, saying there was "nothing morally right" about what happened. He also called out Trump for his repeated attacks on the US Postal Service, arguing that Trump was undermining not only USPS but every major US institution.

The retired Navy SEAL held numerous leadership positions within the special-operations community during his nearly four decades in the service, including overseeing the successful military raid that killed the Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. Trump previously criticized McRaven, saying it would have been nice if the US found bin Laden sooner.

After retiring from the Navy in 2014, McRaven went into academia and has written best-selling books on leadership, including "Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life ... and Maybe the World" and "Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations."

On the subject of leadership, McRaven wrote in Monday's article that "if we remain indifferent to our role in the world, if we retreat from our obligation to our citizens and our allies and if we fail to choose the right leader, then we will pay the highest price for our neglect and shortsightedness."