Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth defended President Donald Trump‘s firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, whom Hegseth argued was “not the right man for the moment.”
Trump announced on Friday his decision to fire the country’s most senior military officer, which was followed a short time later by Hegseth’s announcement that he decided to remove the head of the Navy, the No. 2 in the Air Force, and the top military lawyers from three branches of the military.
TRUMP FIRES CHAIRMAN OF JOINT CHIEFS, GEN. CQ BROWN
“This is a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take,” Hegseth said during an interview on Fox News Sunday. “And I have a lot of respect for C.Q. Brown. I got to know him over the course of a month. He’s an honorable man, not the right man for the moment. And ultimately, the president made that call.”
The former Fox News host did not specify why exactly Brown is “not the right man for the moment,” though prior to his nomination to be secretary, Hegseth had criticized his support for the military’s implementation of diversity and inclusion efforts.
“Nothing about this is unprecedented,” the secretary added, noting that previous presidents have fired or dismissed senior military officers. “The president deserves to pick his key national security and military advisory team. There are lots of presidents who made changes.”
Trump said he would nominate retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to serve as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which will require Senate confirmation. The two met during the president’s first term.
Trump has recalled a conversation he had with Caine, then-the deputy commanding general over the Special Operations Joint Task Force in Iraq, in December 2018, multiple times in recent years. According to Trump’s telling of the story, Caine told the president that it would only take a matter of weeks to defeat ISIS, while his advisers had reportedly said it would take years.
“Dan ‘Razin’ Caine is going to be a fantastic chairman,” Hegseth said. “I look forward to working with him, and he will give straightforward advice, as he did to President Trump, on the defeat of ISIS. No one else said it could be done in a matter of weeks, ‘Razin’ Caine said it could. And guess what? It happened, and the president respects leaders who untie the hands of warfighters in a very dangerous world. I think Dan Caine is the man to meet the moment.”
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Hegseth announced on Friday that he is also relieving Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations, and the Air Force vice chief of staff, Gen. James Slife, of duty. He will also replace the top judge advocates general for the Army, Navy and Air Force, which are the top military lawyers.
“Ultimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don’t exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything,” he added.