Richard Spencer, the former Navy secretary who was forced to step down over his handling of a controversial case involving Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, defended his actions in an interview with CBS News Monday, his first since he was fired yesterday. “What were the ramifications of intervening in that review process?” Martin asked Spencer in the interview. “Uh, well, right now, we’re not going to do it,” Spencer responded, explaining that it sends a message to the troops that “you can get away with things.”

Chief Gallagher was acquitted by a military jury in July of murdering a captured and wounded Islamic State fighter in Iraq, but was convicted of posing with the detainee’s corpse. The Department of Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters at the Pentagon today that his order for Gallagher to retain his Trident pin came directly from President Trump, who has vehemently supported the SEAL. Esper said Spencer was fired after he found out that he was negotiating a deal with the White House to find a solution to the Gallagher case. Spencer said that the Trident review process with senior enlisted reviewing fellow senior enlisted is “critical” and that they are the “backbone” of the U.S. military. “They can handle this,” he said to Martin. “They can handle this in each one of their communities.”