Army secretary calls fired general 'transformational' after Hegseth ousted him
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told lawmakers Thursday that he was out of town when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the Army's top officer, former chief of staff Gen. Randy George, earlier this month, calling George a "transformational leader" as he recounted the abrupt leadership shake-up.
Driscoll said he was in North Carolina with his family when he heard the news, and when driving home went directly to George's house.
"We walked right in, and we all gave him a hug," Driscoll said during a House hearing on the Army's budget. "He was an amazing, transformational leader. That being said, the civilian leadership, the design of our system, is that they get to pick the leaders that they want, and we execute on those orders."
"I, too, love Gen. George," Driscoll added.
It remains unclear why George, who oversaw the Army, was fired on April 2. The Pentagon said at the time that Hegseth asked him to step down from the position and retire immediately.
The decision came as the U.S. remains at war with Iran and as other significant military operations are being carried out in other parts of the world.
Firings of general officers are relatively rare and have historically followed public scandals.
Under Hegseth, however, nearly two dozen top officers have been fired or sidelined, many of whom are women or minorities, with no public explanation of such radical disruptions. That lack of rationale has fueled unease among senior officers and other defense officials, where some feel top-level firings can seemingly happen on a whim, multiple officials have explained.
"When you collectively, the president, the secretary and yourself decided to fire the chief of staff of the Army, publicly, overtly, and I would even say, humiliatingly and cruelly, without any offer, apparently, of a graceful exit, you at least owe Congress, the public, and I think most importantly, the soldiers, some explanation," Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, said to Driscoll in Thursday's hearing.
Additionally, Hegseth removed four colonels from consideration for promotion to general, taking them off the list of names that were set to be sent to the White House and eventually the Senate, according to a U.S. official. Two of those officers are Black and two are women. However, several non-white officers and women remained on the final promotion list, according to a review done by ABC News.
Alongside George, Hegseth also abruptly fired Gen. David Hodne, head of the Army's Transformation and Training Command, and Maj. Gen. William Green, the Army chief of chaplains.
"I can't fathom what the reasoning is," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said, referring to the firing of Green.
At a separate Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday, Gen. James LaNeve, who previously served as a military aide to Hegseth and was tapped to replace George, suggested he was unaware of the colonels being removed from the promotion list, despite weeks of media reports and the fact that monitoring senior-level promotions is a central responsibility of his office.
"Whether those officers have been split from the list, I'm not sure at this time," LaNeve told lawmakers Wednesday.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said coverage of the sidelined senior officers is a "distraction," but did not dispute that four colonels were taken off the promotion list.
"This recycled, weeks old story is nothing more than an attempt to distract from the many successes Secretary Hegseth has had during his tenure," Parnell said in a statement, adding that promotions are "apolitical and unbiased."
