RANK DISGRACE

Pentagon Pete Hit With Explosive Leak as Knives Come Out

Attacks against the defense secretary are becoming public as his future looks uncertain.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used an arcane set of petty criteria to deny military promotions to women and minorities, it has been revealed.

Military sources told MS NOW that Hegseth would have staff conduct internet searches on military officers with sometimes decades of experience and deny them promotions if the results showed they had supported DEI, encouraged COVID-19 vaccines, or spoken at an International Women’s Day panel.

Hegseth used this invented merit-based system as an excuse to disproportionately block women and people of color from advancing. In many cases, this effectively ended their military careers, as officers who do not receive the rank for which they were selected within 18 months are often forced to retire.

“I was like ‘you gotta be kidding me,’ but of course we need people to get confirmed. We need nominations to go through. We need decisions made,” a senior military official told MS NOW.

Reports of Hegseth scuppering promotions at the Pentagon come amid rising speculation about the defense secretary’s own future.

Multiple Republicans believe Hegseth should be the fall guy and be fired over the GOP’s devastating midterm results, given that he oversaw the deeply unpopular war in Iran.

Republican rebel Thomas Massie hopes to introduce a resolution this week to force a vote on impeaching the defense secretary, after accusing Hegseth of carrying out the deeply unpopular Middle East conflict without congressional approval.

On Sunday, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to become House speaker when Democrats take control of the lower chamber in January, told CBS News he was a “hard yes” on any plan to impeach Hegseth.

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Military sources told MS NOW that Hegseth’s office had a “planned and deliberate process” for denying certain officers promotions. This included using printouts of internet searches that the officers in question could not access.

Hegseth also instructed staff to conduct the internet research by phone to avoid leaving a paper trail.

Among the reasons Hegseth decided to prevent officers from being promoted were their roles in implementing the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and the evacuation from Afghanistan under the Biden administration.

Some officers were rejected for allowing a Pride Month event and a celebration that included rainbow flags. Others were rejected for taking part in a Minority Aviation Panel at the Naval Academy or for being quoted in an article about the importance of diversity.

Cody Harnish, a military defense attorney and former Army judge advocate general, said Hegseth’s actions in denying military promotions could be illegal. He said the secretary of defense can remove names from promotion lists below the one-star level only for reasons such as an officer being professionally unqualified or failing to meet “exemplary conduct” standards.

“If ‘professionally unqualified’ can mean ‘executed a lawful program the current Secretary opposes,’ the promotion system and law has no function left,” Harnish said.

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In a statement, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told MS NOW that Hegseth is “reviving the warrior ethos” and wants to ensure the most senior military officers “are committed to warfighting, lethality, and dominance in combat.”

“Military officers serve at the pleasure of the President and the Secretary, and the Department is committed to ensuring that all advancement is merit-based so that only the best and most qualified gain the privilege of leading our Warfighters in advancing the National Defense Strategy,” Parnell added.

“The Secretary has acted and will continue to act within his authority and will not retreat from the historic transformation he has undertaken.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for further comment.

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