Marine on Pres. Obama Facebook posts: Words were somewhat ‘tasteless’

U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Gary Stein talks to CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien about his efforts to stand up for freedom of speech in an other-than-honorable discharge for criticizing President Obama on Facebook.

Stein says, “Those comments were made on a closed forum. They were up for five minutes, which we found out through testimony at the hearing and only three people saw them. In fact, the only reason that anybody has a picture of those posts or knows what those posts are it’s because a marine master sergeant decided he was going to take a screen capture and send it out to God knows who. Everybody he could. That’s the reason it’s out there. Like I said, it was on a closed forum. Three people saw it. It was up for less than five minutes.”

When O’Brien asks for clarification, Stein replies, “I do believe that my words were somewhat tasteless, and I could have used better words…. But the same point the principle behind it or the thoughts behind it thinking that the policies that the president has put forth in the last three and a half years have been crippling our economy, that’s my personal opinion as Gary Stein. And it’s my every right to say that.”

Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien airs weekday mornings from 7-9am ET on CNN.