Hagel: White House Tried To ‘Destroy Me’ After Resignation

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014. On Wednesday, Hagel ordered military men and women helping fight Ebola to undergo 21-day quarantines that start upon th... Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014. On Wednesday, Hagel ordered military men and women helping fight Ebola to undergo 21-day quarantines that start upon their return _ instead of their last exposure to an Ebola patient. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) MORE LESS
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Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel accused the Obama administration of micromanaging his department and trying to “destroy” him in an extended interview with Foreign Policy published on Friday.

Hagel, who was forced out of his cabinet position in 2014, told the magazine that anonymous White House officials were “really vilifying me in a gutless, off-the-record kind of way” in the press after he agreed to leave his post.

“They already had my resignation, so what was the point of just continuing to try to destroy me?” Hagel told Foreign Policy.

Hagel was also critical of the management style of certain members of the Obama administration. Foreign Policy speculated he was referring to National Security Adviser Susan Rice and her staff.

“For one thing, there were way too many meetings. The meetings were not productive,” Hagel said. “I don’t think many times we ever actually got to where we needed to be. We kept kind of deferring the tough decisions. And there were always too many people in the room.”

Read the full interview here.

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