Sen. Jack Reed, the rating Democrat on the Armed Providers Committee, mentioned Sunday that President Donald Trump’s Friday night time purge of senior Pentagon leaders is a menace to the nonpartisan nature of the navy.
“It was utterly unjustified. These women and men had been very good professionals. They had been dedicated to their oath to defend the Structure of the USA. And, apparently, what Trump and [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth are attempting to do is to politicize the Division of Protection, and it is not stunning they put Kash Patel because the FBI director, who’s a partisan, who has no, I feel, respect for the traditions of neutrality of the FBI,” Reed mentioned in an unique interview with ABC Information’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“And, now they’ve turned to DOD, they usually need everybody in DOD beholden to the president, to not the Structure,” he mentioned. “They need everybody there to do what they’re instructed, whatever the regulation.”
Trump fired Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown in a controversial transfer Friday night. Along with Brown, the administration fired different senior officers, together with the Navy’s prime admiral, Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti.
Senator Jack Reed seems on “This Week,” Feb. 23, 2025.
ABC Information
It was the primary time two members of the Joint Chiefs of Workers have had their roles terminated.
In a social media publish, Trump mentioned he was nominating retired Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs, which must be confirmed by the Senate.
The Joint Chiefs of Workers is a bunch of senior uniformed leaders who function the highest navy advisers to the president and Division of Protection officers. The Joint Chiefs of Workers was created with the concept of it being apolitical. By design, officers’ four-year phrases intersect two presidents.
Reed mentioned the purge degraded the navy, particularly the firing of three prime navy legal professionals.
“What was additionally startling within the weekend was firing all of the advocate generals of the navy. If you are going to break the regulation, the very first thing you do is you eliminate the legal professionals. So we’re taking a look at a really harmful undermining of the values of our navy, and the repercussions are being felt already,” he mentioned. “Folks questioning whether or not they need to say, proficient leaders, questioning if they need to get out. It’s, it is, the start of a really, very severe degradation of the navy and politicization of the navy.”
Retired Gen. George Casey Jr., a former U.S. Military chief of workers who served underneath former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, identified that Brown’s dismissal might depart the USA weak.
Retired Military Basic George Casey seems on “This Week,” Feb. 23, 2025.
ABC Information
“That is extraordinarily destabilizing at a time that there is a lot happening domestically and loads happening overseas. Once you take away so many senior leaders, particularly with out justifying and giving due trigger, it creates enormous uncertainty within the ranks, and it simply is not factor for the navy at a really tough time,” Casey mentioned.
Trump and Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth mentioned they’d take away Range, Fairness and Inclusion applications from the navy and Hegseth alluded that Brown’s firing was due to his involvement in these initiatives.
“That is an issue for me, as a result of these leaders had been following the lawful directives of the civilian leaders of the previous administration, and now we will put leaders in jeopardy and punish them for following lawful orders from one other administration. I imply, give me a break,” Casey mentioned.
Nevertheless, regardless of his disapproval of the administration’s motion, Casey mentioned that Trump acted inside his rights as president. He added that the firings ought to have been defined higher.
“I’ll disagree with the timing and all the pieces of those, of those removals, but it surely’s purely, it’s considerably inside the president’s prerogative. That is his, that is his prerogative. He’s the commander in chief of the armed forces, and we observe the directives of, the, our civilian leaders,” Casey mentioned.
