Eddie Gallagher controversy: Esper fires Navy secretary amid Navy SEAL case, Pentagon says

Fox News ^ | November 24, 2019 | Andrew O'Reilly, Vandana Rambaran

[Widget Jr]

Defense Secretary Mark Esper fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer Sunday over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL who posed for a photo next to an Islamic State terrorist's corpse in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said Sunday.

“Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper has asked for the resignation of Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer after losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candor over conversations with the White House involving the handling of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher," Department of Defense spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement Sunday.

Controversy continued to swirl around whether or not the Navy would strip Gallagher of his Trident pin, ousting him from the prestigious SEALs after he was demoted from chief petty officer to a 1st class petty officer following his conviction in July. President Trump this month restored Gallagher’s rank and ordered that the Navy halt its internal review of Gallagher's actions from 2017 that resulted in a high-profile war crimes case, for which he was found not guilty of the murder of an Islamic State fighter in Iraq.

[ataDude]

That is what happens, and should happen, when someone in the military...anyone... thinks he out ranks the Commander-in-Chief.

Same with diplomatic corps... POTUS makes the foreign policy... not them. I was so tired last week of hearing about the “inter-agency consensus” from the diplomats.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You think you’re special, do ya?

Disregard your CHAIN OF COMMAND and pay the consequences.

Good! Another Anti-Trump Jerk GONE! :)

[livius]

Actually, that is what happened. He defied a direct order from the CIC, and he had to go. Not getting rid of him would have been a bad sign for our republic.

[StAnDeliver]

"Reads like the SECDEF fired the SECNAV for disrespecting the SECDEF, not the POTUS. Trumps should fire the SECDEF and that Admiral Green as well. JMHO"

No way. Trump simply read the disrespect per CoC and did what he HAD to do. The Navy is made of sailors. At the end of the day, the Military Code of Justice is to protect the rank-and-file FROM insurbordinate SUPERIORS.

Classic Trump. God bless that man.

[ARW]

There’s no way the sec of defense fires the the sec of navy without Trump’s approval.

[Zhang Fei]

[So is it all over or is “the rest of it” going to happen.]

---

Trump’s not all that concerned with getting in the weeds, so it may be sufficient that he’s laid down the law, and indicated to his subordinates that it’s his way or the highway. These are fairly wealthy senior cabinet level people who want their jobs for the prestige rather than for the typically below-private sector pay. While it is unfair for Spencer to take the fall, maybe Trump has a better working relationship with Esper when Esper isn’t contradicting him in public.

[DainBramage]

Ahh the navy secretary is civilian.

[Songcraft]

They ought to be able to find a spot for Adm. Green on some polar icebreaker someplace...

     

(That looks like a really cool assignment!)

[PIF]

Back when in '82, I thought Adrienne Barbeau was really hot.

Probably make a better SecNav then most others

[Chode]

[JBW1949]

Yep...It’s great read...

He was definitely one of few...

[Captain Peter Blood]

I think she still is.

[StAnDeliver]

"Rear Admiral Collin Green soon to follow I expect."

"Wanting to retire to spend time with family" ... "moving on after 40 years with the Navy family" ... "Excited to be moving on to his next phase of double-dipping his Navy pension with his $2M consultant contract with RANDMEHARD."

[mrsmith]

It’s not unfair for Spencer to “take the fall” for going behind his superior’s back- and over his head.

You just can’t do that.

As for the nuances of the Gallagher case, they don’t matter. You don’t do that to your boss.

[gibsonguy]

Hmm thanks for the correction. I must be thinking about someone else. He still needed to be fired.

[Hot Tabasco]

f SecNav disobeys the CinC and is not fired,

I find all this strange since I saw him interviewed on a Canadian station he stated that he did not submit his resignation due to Trump's decision and followed up by saying that his job is to obey the decisions of his Commander in Chief.........

So what is going on? Who you going to believe?

All this is very strange.......

[wastedyears]

Wait for some black-robed tyrant to reverse it with no reason given.

[eartick]

after the horse was out of the barn

[Fightin Whitey]

I saw Spencer on Fox early this morning, and he was saying he had no problem with the Preezy and had no problem with the orders as given.

He must have mouthed off again through back channels, whatever.

Or maybe he’d simply made a mess where more was less.

[nikos1121]

Correct me if I’m wrong, as I know the media will not be straight.

Trump tweeted that the Seal would NOT lose is trident pin, BUT he agreed to allow the military investigation move forward, BUT the Navy Admiral went one of Trump’s people and “privately” tried to work out a deal.

IOWs, a tweet is not an order, but it did give them a heads up, on how trump would respond if they took the pin away. The guy was therefore not fired for not following an order, he was fired for trying to do an end round of the CIC.