USA: We will protect our war fighters - Trump on Navy SEAL case

*BUG AT SOURCE*
SOT, Reporter: "Mr President what was your thinking about the Navy Secretary?"
Donald Trump, US President: "We've been thinking about that for a long time. That didn't just happen. And I have to protect my war fighters. I've been gotten a lot of people have, a lot of war fighters and people in the military have thanked us very much. It's been, it's about time they had one young man in jail for six years. He had many years to go. And a lot of people think he shouldn't have been there. And I gave him a pardon. With Eddie Gallagher, you know that story very well. They want to take his pin away. And I said, no, you're not going to take it away. He was a great fighter. He was one of the ultimate fighters. Tough guy. These are not weak people. These are tough people. And we're going to protect our war fighters. And I've been given a lot of thank you's including we just had some very great special forces people come to the White House and they brought Conan, but they were here for themselves also. I wanted to see him. I went to meet him. They gave us a rundown on what happened with al-Baghdadi. And they're incredible. But they were very thankful. Somebody has their back and it's called the president of the US, OK?" *JUMPCUT AT SOURCE*
SOT, Donald Trump, US President: "No, I think what I'm doing is sticking up for our armed forces. And there's never been a president that's going to stick up for them and has like I have, including the facts that we spent two and a half trillion dollars on rebuilding our armed forces. And very unfair things were happening. You let sergeant Bergdahl go, you let others go, including a young gentleman now a person who President Obama let go, who stole tremendous amount of classified information."
SOT, Donald Trump, US President: "The person I'm talking about is Chelsea Manning, by the way, if you had any doubt. So you have Chelsea Manning, who after - after Chelsea Manning was, I assume, pardoned by President Obama, Chelsea Manning went around and badmouthed President Obama, on top of everything else. So when you have a Chelsea Manning who stole classified information and did many, many things that were not good and gets pardoned - or whatever happened - and you have a Sergeant Bergdahl who gets - virtually nothing happens; a slap on the wrist - and then they want to put these warriors in jail for 25 years. One of them, Lorance, served six years in jail; had many years left as a fighter. No, we're not going do that to our people."
Reporter: "Mr. President, what do you make of Giuliani saying - what do you make of Rudy Giuliani saying he has insurance?"
Donald Trump, US President: "Oh, I don't know. Rudy is a great guy. Rudy was..."
Reporter: "Is there any chance he would flip on you?"
Donald Trump, US President: "Rudy was the - and he covered that himself. You know that. Rudy is - Rudy is the best mayor in the history of New York. In my opinion, the strongest mayor, the best mayor. Rudy is a great crime fighter, corruption fighter. Probably the best in 50 years. When he was here, and also when he was at the U.S. Attorney in Southern District, he was phenomenal. Rudy is a great person. And I think that maybe the press isn't treating Rudy very well, and I think that's unfair. But Rudy was a great mayor and a great crime fighter. Thank you very much."
SCRIPT
US President Donald Trump said that "we're going to protect our war fighters," commenting on the case of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who was convicted of posing with the corpse of the militant of the so-called Islamic State (IS; formerly ISIS/ISIL) killed in Iraq in 2017. Trump spoke during his meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in the White House in Washington DC on Monday.
"With Eddie Gallagher, you know that story very well. They want to take his pin away. And I said, no, you're not going to take it away. He was a great fighter. He was one of the ultimate fighters. Tough guy. These are not weak people. These are tough people," stressed Trump.
Gallagher was allowed to retire with his Trident pin and in his SEAL status at the request of Trump.