A retired Air Force secretary’s description of how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has impacted the military shocked Kaitlan Collins.
During a Wednesday interview, Collins interviewed Frank Kendall about the military under Hegseth. Kendall said that Hegseth’s “witch hunt for people who are supposedly woke” and attack on dissent have frightened the ranks and diminished morale to the point where the military is struggling to operate.
“In a word, it’s dysfunctional,” Kendall said, answering a question from Collins about his assessment of what’s happening in the military and Pentagon right now. “I’ve worked with and had a chance to work for maybe a dozen secretaries of defense. He’s doing active harm to the Department of Defense. It’s not passive. It’s active harm.”
Kendall penned an op-ed for the New York Times on Tuesday in which he argued that the military can’t deny the damage of the Trump administration any longer. Kendall expanded on the arguments he made in the piece during his interview with Collins and pointed to problems like the firings of dozens of general officers and the removal of people from promotion lists.
“Both of these are totally unprecedented,” Kendall said about the firings and removals. “The climate of fear that’s been created is very palpable. It’s affecting everybody in how they work. It’s affecting the quality of advice that’s being given. People are afraid to say something that’s not going to be approved of.”
Kendall said that Hegseth’s “witch hunt” on woke “has a lot of people scared. Even in the first Trump administration, when emphasizing DEI was part of policy, people would make speeches about it, and now they’re being punished for that.”
He described it as “a very tough climate to work in,” and added, “I am in touch with a lot of people. I just talked to someone recently who are service and questioning whether they should remain in the service or not continue to serve their country because of the climate they’re working in.”
Collins reacted to the detail by shouting, “That’s remarkable,” and followed up by asking, “You’ve spoken with people who are considering leaving the military altogether because of the environment right now?”
“That’s right,” Kendall said, which was followed by a long silence.
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