Many congressional Republicans have emphasized that Trump has the right, as the commander-in-chief, to dismiss those military officials.
Five former Pentagon chiefs signed an open letter calling on Congress to hold immediate hearings on President Donald Trump’s firings of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other defense officials.
In the letter, former Defense Secretaries Lloyd Austin, James Mattis, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, and William Perry argued there was no justification for Trump to fire Air Force Gen. CQ Brown as the leader of the joint chiefs earlier this month. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations; Gen. Jim Slife, vice chief of the Air Force; and the judge advocates general, or JAG, for the military services.
“We, like many Americans—including many troops—are therefore left to conclude that these leaders are being fired for purely partisan reasons,” said the letter, before adding, “We’re not asking members of Congress to do us a favor; we’re asking them to do their jobs.”
The Epoch Times contacted the Defense Department and White House press office for comment on Friday.
“As former Secretaries of Defense, we call on both the House and the Senate to hold immediate hearings to assess the national security implications of Mr. Trump’s dismissals,” the letter said. “The House and Senate should demand that the administration justify each firing and fully explain why it violated Congress’ legislative intent that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff complete a four-year term in office.”
The five former defense chiefs represented Republican and Democrat administrations over the past three decades. Mattis was nominated by Trump in his first term before he resigned from his post in February 2019 after a disagreement with the president on withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria.
Adding that Brown hadn’t yet finished his term, the former Pentagon chiefs said that U.S. senators should refuse to confirm any nominations in the Department of Defense (DOD), which includes Trump’s choice to name retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine as his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The chairman has a four-year term, and Brown had served a little less than 17 months.
