Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer recently slammed former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning following her announcement that she was running for U.S. Senate in Maryland.
Meyer, a Marine and recipient of the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions during a fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan, slammed Manning for her previous experience in the U.S. Army.
“Didn’t [@xychelsea] already have a chance to serve this country honorably and fail,” Meyer tweeted over the weekend, referring to Manning and using the hashtag “asking for a friend.”
Dakota Meyer (Twitter)
Manning filed to run as a Democrat, and she would run against Sen. Ben Cardin in the November Democratic primary.
Meyer, a hero of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, fought off a number of Taliban fighters to help save the lives of several trapped comrades despite being told by superiors not to go in. During the battle, on Sept. 8, 2009, Meyer ran into heavy fire five times to help save the lives of 36 people.
Manning, 30, is the transgender former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who leaked more than 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, making it the largest leak in United States history. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but her sentence was commuted by former President Barack Obama. Manning was released from prison in May.
Manning was released from prison early after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence – the longest prison term given to an American leaker. Obama commuted Manning’s sentence just days before he left office.
Manning, who entered an all-male military prison as “Bradley,” announced he was transgender immediately after his sentencing in 2013.
When the military denied Manning’s request for hormones, Manning tried to commit suicide twice.
