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William H. McRaven, a retired four-star admiral and former Navy SEAL, defendedjournalists this week, calling President Trumps denunciation of the media as the enemy of the American people the greatest threat to democracy hes seen in his lifetime.

Thats coming from a man whos seen major threats todemocracy.

McRaven, who was commander of the secretive Joint Special Operations, is the man who organized and oversaw the highly risky operationthat killed Osama bin Ladenalmost six years ago. The admiral from Texas had tapped a special unit of Navy SEALs to carry out the May 2011 raid of the elusive terrorists hideout, a high-walled compound inAbbottabad, Pakistan,The Washington Posts Craig Whitlock reportedshortly after bin Ladens death.

McRaven left the military in 2014 after nearly four decades and later became chancellor of the University of Texas System. The UT-Austin alumnus, who has a bachelors degree in journalism,addressed a crowd at the universitys Moody College of Communication on Tuesday.

We must challenge this statement and this sentiment that the news media is the enemy of the American people, McRaven said, according to the Daily Texan.This sentiment may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.

[Adm. William McRaven: The terrorist hunter on whose shoulders Osama bin Laden raid rested.]

To be a good leader you have to be a good communicator, he added. As a leader you have to communicate your intent every chance you get and if you fail to do that, you will pay the consequences.

McRavens remarkscome amid Twitter attacks on the media by the president, whos hollered FAKE NEWS at several negative stories about his administration. In a widely shared tweet Friday, Trump called the media, naming the New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN, the enemy of the American People!

In another tweet the same day, Trump quotedconservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who praised the presidents news conference the day before during which he confrontedthe media.

One of the most effective press conferences Ive ever seen! says Rush Limbaugh. Many agree. Yet FAKE MEDIA calls it differently! Dishonest, Trump tweeted.

President Trump berated the media repeatedly at his press conference on Feb. 16, calling CNN, the New York Times and other outlets "dishonest" and "very fake news," for reporting unfavorable stories about him. (Video: Reuters / Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Trump repeatedly blasted the media in a combative, more-than-an-hour-long news conference last Thursday, repeating descriptions of the press as dishonest and fake.

He berated a Jewish reporter for askinga question about bomb threats to dozens of Jewish community centers and for expressing concerns that Trump had yet to address anti-Semitic attacks. The president took the question as a personal affront, saying he was not anti-Semitic, even though the reporter never made such an accusation.

At the news conference, thepresidentalso criticized the intelligence community, asserted that his young administration is running smoothly and said that hed inherited a mess.

Trump haslashed out at the media a couple more times on Twitter over the past few days.

[Commander of bin Laden raid blasts Senate for disrespecting military leaders]

McRaven is not the only retired military man who has criticized the presidents remarks.

In an interview Saturday on NBC News, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), a vocal Trump critic, said such criticisms of the media is how dictators get started.

In other words, a consolidation of power, McCain told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd from Munich. When you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press. And Im not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. Im just saying we need to learn the lessons of history.

McCain was specifically responding to Trumps condemnation of the news media as the enemy of the people, a phrase typically used by leaders to refer to hostile foreign governments or subversive organization and echoed the language of autocrats who seek minimize dissent, the New York Times wrote.

This is not the onlytime McRaven hasspoken outsince leaving the military.

In a seething column published last year in theTampa Tribune, he blasted Congress, specifically the Senate, for a disturbing trend in how politicians abuse and denigrate military leadership, particularly the officer corps, to advance their political agendas.

[Fox News anchor Chris Wallace warns viewers: Trump crossed the line in latest attack on media]

McRaven was particularly angry at the Senates treatment of Rear Adm. Brian L. Losey, who was forced to retire after several Democratic and Republican senators pressured the Navy to hold him accountable for retaliating against multiple whistleblowers, The Posts Whitlock wrote in 2016.

A series of DOD inspector general investigations were reviewed by the Navy leadership and, once again, Adm. Losey was found not to have violated the law, rule or policy. In fact, it was clear to the Navy that the personnel action taken by Losey against the complainants was not reprisal, McRaven wrote, adding later: Despite the Navys multiple endorsements, certain members of Congress chose to use Loseys case to pursue their own political agenda. They held hostage other Navy nominations until Loseys promotion recommendation was rescinded. The ransom for their congressional support was Brian Loseys career and, more importantly, his stellar reputation.

Losey, who was commander in charge of the Navys elite SEAL teams, served under McRaven.

McRaven, one of the most experienced terrorist hunters in the U.S. government, had spent years tracking bin Ladenand recruited the Navy SEALs that carried out the raid two months before the terrorist was killed,Whitlock wrote.

The search for bin Laden was led by the CIA. Leon Panetta, the agencys director at the time, delegated the mission to McRaven after then-President Barack Obama gave the authorization.

In his book titled Spec Ops, McRaven noted six key requirements for any successful mission: surprise, speed, security, simplicity, purpose and repetition.

Amy B Wang contributed to this story.

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'Greatest threat to democracy': Commander of bin Laden raid slams Trump's anti-media sentiment - Washington Post