“I’m not a p***y,” O’Neill, 44, recently posted on Twitter alongside a selfie of himself smiling without what he referred to as a “dumb a**” mask.
— VetsForward (@AZVetsForward) August 19, 2020
The post itself has since been deleted.
“We’re aware of this customer’s tweet and are reviewing this event. All customers who don’t comply with our mask-wearing requirement risk losing their ability to fly Delta in the future,” Delta representative Kyla Ross told the New York Post.
“Medical research tells us that wearing a mask is one of the most effective ways to reduce the COVID-19 infection rate,” she added.
O’Neill’s tweet was criticized by many people online, including by American actress and political activist Alyssa Milano.
“You do realize you may be asymptomatic and give the virus to other people that could potentially kill them. I think that makes you a sociopath. Besides, p***ies are actually so strong that we can deliver human beings out of them. Please, I’m begging you, wear a damn mask,” Milano tweeted on August 19.
O’Neill responded to Milano’s tweet with one of his own, writing, “I do wear a mask, @Alyssa_Milano ... this attempt at a joke did NOT go over well…”
In another tweet, O’Neill claimed that his wife was responsible for deleting his original tweet.
O’Neill previously also tweeted a questionable statement that appears to cast doubt on the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve been to Tennessee, New York, Louisiana, Mississippi & Florida this week. Heading to Massachusetts. I still have not met a single person with this virus,” he tweeted on June 28.
Last week, Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNN that dozens of people have been barred from flying with the airline for refusing to comply with its mask-wearing policies.
"We've had well over 100 people that have refused to keep their mask on during the flight," Bastian told the outlet.
According to a report by The Intercept, O’Neill is a controversial figure even within the Navy SEAL community. He was fired after serving 16 years in the US Navy after it was revealed that he bragged in Virginia Beach bars about being the person who killed bin Laden in his Pakistan-based compound in 2011.
However, his former teammates have clarified and stated that it was another Navy SEAL who fatally shot bin Laden before O’Neill entered the room and fired several shots into the al-Qaeda leader’s face.
