Retired Major General Rips ‘Incompetent’ Hegseth for ‘Playing Russian Roulette With the Security of the United States’

Retired Major General Randy Manner tore into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as “incompetent” over his purge of senior military leaders, accusing him of “playing Russian roulette with the security of the United States.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Hegseth addressed troops at Marine Corps Base Quantico, where he first referenced his latest military cuts. The reductions, first reported by Fox News on Tuesday, call for eliminating 20% of positions reserved for generals and admirals — double the 10% previously ordered.

Admitting that those “who clung to the ‘woke department’… no longer work here,” the defense secretary bragged, “The media calls that a purge. I call it accountability and long overdue. And frankly, the bare minimum.”

“The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in,” he added.

Manner joined CNN’s The Lead on Wednesday. Just before his appearance, host Jake Tapper noted that in President Donald Trump’s war with Iran thus far, the U.S. has seen “19 dead service members.”

“Some of the people that Hegseth has fired in the ‘name of accountability‘ are some of the most decorated and respected officers we’ve had in the modern era,” Tapper continued, referencing Gen. Randy George, the former Army chief of staff, and Gen. Christopher Donahue, the former head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa.

“The concept of reducing the number of admirals and generals is a good one,” Manner responded. “The problem is that the Secretary of Defense has already proven that he’s trying to purge the military. He’s already fired 80 people. 80 generals and admirals, because of their gender, because they’re not white like him, or because they were associated with Gen. [Mark] Milley or others. Incredibly competent generals, and he’s getting rid of them.”

“Do you have any concerns about now being the right time to cut senior military positions, given the fact that the U.S. is engaged in an active war with Iran?” Tapper asked.

“This is just unbelievable,” Manner lamented, before adding:

It’s sophomoric. Think about this — if it were a business with a $1.5 trillion budget and over a million and a half people in it. Any corporation would have to be very thoughtful to be able to figure out how to restructure the organization, so there was no loss of ability to serve the customers and to reduce any kind of risks.

So, a thoughtful restructuring would be very smart. He’s not doing that. He, literally, is purging people who don’t agree with him. The problem is that this incompetent Secretary of Defense is actually dealing not with the profitability of a corporation, but is instead playing Russian roulette with the security of the United States. This is extremely dangerous.

Watch above on CNN.

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