"It was a betrayal,” Modly said in a transcript of remarks as reviewed by CNN. “And I can tell you one other thing: because he did that he put it in the public's forum and it is now a big controversy in Washington, DC.”

"If he didn't think, in my opinion, that this information wasn't going to get out to the public, in this day and information age that we live in,” Modly can be heard saying in the recording, “then he was either A., too naïve or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this.” In the audio linked above, an unidentified person can be heard yelling, “What the f—k?” at that point.

“The alternative,” Modly continued, “is that he did this on purpose.” Modly also said the media has an agenda, sometimes used to “embarrass” the Navy and “you,” meaning the sailors he was addressing. He also described China as an “authoritarian regime” that was “not forthcoming” and “put the world at risk” to “protect their reputation.” He also said “what your captain did was very, very wrong in a moment when expected him to be the calming force on a turbulent sea.”

David Ignatius, who interviewed Modly about the decision to fire Crozier and covered it for The Washington Post, says he received an email from Modly summing up his mindset, including: “I had serious doubts about how this CO might act if, for example, the ship came under attack by hypersonic missiles, or by cyber forces that crippled his communications… It’s essential to love your crew, but it’s not sufficient,” Modly, who also stressed that he wanted to make the call before Trump ordered it to be done, reportedly wrote. In short, Ignatius reported, Modly communicated he believed Crozier was “panicking."

The other big question is, of course, how this firing came to happen so quickly. We know that Trump supports Crozier's firing as he criticized the letter during a White House press conference, saying it was “terrible,” as well as noting in typical Trump babble: “I mean, this isn't a class on literature.” But just last Wednesday, Modly said that the memo would not result in “any type of retaliation.” Come Thursday, Modly’s story had shifted—the captain had “poor judgment” in sending the memo to multiple people and not his direct superior. Defense Secretary Mark Esper also defended the firing on the Sunday shows, and has said the move was an “example of how we hold our leaders accountable.” An investigation is supposedly underway, per Esper’s comments on Sunday.

More than 170 sailors on the vessel have now tested positive for the virus, most have been tested, and 2,000 have been evacuated to the shore, as reported by CNN.