President Donald Trump on Tuesday called the raid in Yemen "a very successful mission" despite the death of a Navy SEAL.
"Well, this was a mission that was started before I got here," Trump told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" morning show.
"This was something that was, you know, just — they wanted to do. And they came to see me and they explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected. ... And according to General Mattis, it was a very successful mission. They got tremendous amounts of information."
Trump lamented the death of Chief Special Warfare Officer William "Ryan" Owens, telling Fox there is "nothing worse" than the loss.
Trump's comments come amid criticism from Owens' father, Bill Owens, who called the raid a "stupid mission" and reprimanded Trump for "hiding behind my son's death."
White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday backtracked from his "absolutely a success" comments from Feb. 9, saying "you can't ever say that … it's 100 percent successful" when there's loss of life, but that the mission met its objective — obtaining valuable information.
However, an NBC News report late Monday quoted unnamed officials that said the raid produced no "actionable intelligence."
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