A bipartisan group of past defense secretaries has called on Congress to hold hearings into President Trump's firing of several senior military leaders, saying the officers were fired "for purely partisan reasons." Their open letter says, "We write to urge the US Congress to hold Mr. Trump to account for these reckless actions and to exercise fully its Constitutional oversight responsibilities." It was signed by Lloyd Austin, Jim Mattis, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, and William Perry, the Washington Post reports.
On Friday, Trump fired leaders including Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations; Gen. James Slife, vice chief of staff of the Air Force; and the top military lawyers for all three branches. Presidents have the legal authority to remove top military officials, per the Hill, but they usually provide a reason. Trump hasn't done that. Brown was less than halfway through his four-year term; the chairs of the Joint Chiefs typically do not change when the presidential administration does, which is designed to keep the job nonpartisan.
"The President offered no justification for his actions, even though he had nominated these officers for previous positions and the Senate had approved them," the letter sent Thursday says. One administration official pointed out that President Dwight D. Eisenhower remade the Joint Chiefs not long after World War II. A spokesman for the White House's National Security Council responded with an indictment of the Pentagon. "Our military readiness is down, we have faced historic lows in recruitment and retention, we aren't building enough ships, and service members are living in abysmal barrack conditions," the statement said, per the Post. "President Trump is taking bold action to ensure the Joint Staff is leading a well-run and lethal warfighting force that is second to none." (More Trump administration stories.)
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