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.

[CMSMC]

Ahhh...David Hackworth remembrance....

David who? Surely the Admiralty don’t want to hear from the real war-fighters, do they? About Face! Good read... GB Colonel Hack, may he rest in peace.

[mrsmith]

Fired for trying to do an end round of his immediate superior, the Sec of Def.
Not the CIC.

[ETCM]

“I thought he claimed that he had no problem following the President’s instruction/order.”

Telling your Commander in Chief that you will disregard his order unless he "puts it in writing" is insubordination in and of itself. I knew when he said that, that there was a chance he would be fired.

I have challenged the orders of my superiors many times, but I did so behind a closed door. Regardless of whether my arguments succeeded or not, when I walked out of that door, my superior and I were "on the same page".

Trying to make a deal that gives the appearance of an Admiral being insubordinate to his CINC was horrible optics.

[CivilWarBrewing]

..an end around the Sec of Defense, and the CIC.

[Gay State Conservative]

See Post #8

[CivilWarBrewing]

Perhaps Trump should've not Tweeted about it without issuing a direct order first in writing. Twitter causes problems all the way around and lures men into engaging in 'cat fight' nonsense..

Twitter is a CAT FIGHT!

[mrsmith]

Spencer may have recently seen a production of HMS Pinafore...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ-gfalEWI0
(not my fav version, but it will do).

[AAABEST]

An officer of the Armed Forces is not “loyal to Trump”. He is loyal to the Constitutional requirement that the President of the United States is the Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Thanks for the lesson in semantics, but I took that oath and understand what it means.

Resisters, insubordinates and others in the officer cadre seeking to thwart the will of or work against POTUS (like this a-hole, Vindman, Mattis etc.) can and should be dealt in the harshest possible terms - and there's nothing "third world" about it. People get sent to Djibouti all the time.

I can't be the first person telling you life in the military can gets difficult when you piss off or work against your commanders.

[ncalburt]

Adm Green caused all of this mess .
His vindictive plan against Gallagher was the spark .

Spencer should of shut it down quietly .

The recent comments by DOD on Gallagher are concerning .

[Hot Tabasco]

See Post #8

I read it and I accept it as fact just as much as the rest of the anonymous sources and insiders are leaking whatever crap the media is reporting.......

I don't believe anything anymore until it's reported as a done deal and verified.

[ETCM]

Very true, and I’m no fan of many of his tweets. But love it or hate it, that’s Trump. In his case, I’ll take the bad with the good.

[lightman]

There’s no right to be an employee. Especially not one paid by taxpayers.

And doubly so when one is employed "at will".

[CivilWarBrewing]

I firmly believe that Twitter leads males, especially today's boys down the path of emasculation with back-and-forth 'cat fight' nonsense. Seems the age of the stoic man is long gone.

President Trump's nature is to engage in cat fights but no other President in history has been wrongfully persecuted like he has as well as having a totally CORRUPT ANTI-TRUMP MEDIA to contend with.

[nikos1121]

Oh

[Zhang Fei]

[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.]

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Esper wanted Gallagher drummed out of the military and his pension revoked. Trump wanted Gallagher’s rank restored. Spencer tried to resolve the tension between these contradictory objectives by going around Esper’s back - he made a public statement in line with Esper’s declaration, while mollifying Trump’s objections by rigging Gallagher’s review so he would be cleared.

---

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/11/23/esper-milley-raise-concern-white-house-navy-seal-status-edward-gallagher-nr-vpx.cnn
Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley have raised serious concerns with the White House after President Donald Trump signaled he would block the Navy from ejecting Eddie Gallagher from the SEALs, an administration official told CNN.

[Guenevere]

Thank-you Mr.President!

[TMN78247]

EXACTLY SO.

Yours, TMN78247
USA, Retired

[ETCM]

Yes, as much as I hate Twitter, and dislike the way POTUS sometimes uses it, at times he has no other way to get his message to the masses. Anything he says elsewhere is hidden, filtered, distorted, edited, twisted, presented out of context, and lied about to prevent voters from hearing his actual message. Unless you actually watch or read every word of his press conferences, interviews, statements, etc, you will have no idea what he said or wrote.

[mosaicwolf]

It used to be under the Obama Admin, orders from the commander is just the opening bid to further negotiations. It appears the military has figured out that is not the case under this CIC.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Thank-you Mr.President!

You betcha! He will go down in history for the correct moves he has made.