Episode Details

Pete Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George during a war for refusing to remove Black and female officers from a promotion list. George had 37 years of service, graduated from West Point, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and had a year and a half left on his Senate-confirmed term. He asked Hegseth for a meeting to discuss the blocked promotions. Hegseth refused. Then he struck the officers’ names himself and fired the general who tried to stop him. He also fired two more generals the same day, the head of Army Transformation and Training and the chief of Army chaplains. NBC reports Hegseth has blocked or delayed promotions for more than a dozen Black and female officers across all four branches of the military. He previously fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, a Black man, and the Chief of Naval Operations, a woman. His replacement for George is Gen. Chris LaNeve, his own personal military assistant. Fifteen American troops are dead in the Iran war. Over 200 wounded. The 82nd Airborne is deploying. And the man running this war is firing his most experienced leaders because they won’t let him discriminate. I covered the original promotion purge last week, go watch that for the full background.