Fmr. Air Force Secy. Calls Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon ‘Dysfunctional’

EXCERPT:

KENDALL: "In a word, it’s dysfunctional The — this secretary, and I’ve worked with and had a chance to work for maybe a dozen secretaries of defense, he’s doing active harm to the Department of Defense. It’s not passive, it’s active harm. You mentioned some of the things, all the firings of general officers, about 25 now, I think, removing people from promotion lists — both of these are totally unprecedented. The climate of fear that’s been created is very palpable. It’s affecting everybody in how they work. It’s affecting the quality of advice that’s being given. People are afraid to say something that’s not going to be approved of. The witch hunt, if you will, for people who are supposedly woke, I think has got a lot of people scared. Even in the first Trump Administration, when emphasizing DEI was part of the policy, people would make speeches about it and now they’re being punished for that. So it’s a very tough climate to work in. I don’t think senior leaders are getting good advice. And people are coping as best they can. And the things I mentioned in the op-ed are some of the coping mechanisms that they’re using to try to adapt to the situation. It’s not good for the country."