Richard Spencer, the ousted Secretary of the Navy, said Monday that he was compelled to try to counteract President Donald Trump’s intervention in the case of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher to “preserve the resiliency of the naval institution.”
According to CBS News, he spoke with White House counsel Pat Cipollone on November 15 to strike a bargain, after Trump promoted Gallagher who was demoted as punishment for posing with an ISIS fighter’s corpse while in Iraq. Spencer proposed that Gallagher be allowed to retire as a SEAL in exchange for Trump butting out of the military review process.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that he lost confidence in Spencer for forging the deal behind his back.
“I will take the bad on me, for not letting him know I did that,” Spencer said. “But as far as I was concerned, at that point, the President understood the deal. Arguably, he doesn’t have to deal with anyone.”
Cipollone rejected the deal, saying that Trump was certainly going to be involved.
Spencer blasted Trump in his outgoing letter.
“…I no longer share the same understanding as the Commander in Chief who appointed me, in regards to the key principle of good order and discipline,” he wrote. “I cannot in good conscience obey an order that I believe violates the sacred oath I took in the presence of my family, my flag and my faith to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
I’d like Spencer a lot better if he’d spoken out publicly before he got caught and pushed out.
He was speaking publicly.
He tried to pull off what would have been a very smooth move to preserve the aura of discipline and order-- let the investigation go ahead, but with a pre-determined outcome.
Frankly, not a bad try, considering the people we’re dealing with now.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I would have preferred “I quit because the motherfucker fucks up everything he fucks with, including the military”.
And did he do that? Gallegar is still drawing a check and has his goofy pin. Did the rest of the civilian leadership of the navy ( for that matter the entire US Armed Forces ) take his lead and en mass tell Trump they’ll all walk of Gallegar does?
No. They did their career thing and shit on the Honor they demand of the uniforms below them. This guy’s an outlier and should act like one. No one had his back. He’s free now. He has nothing to lose.