Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed out the Army chief of staff back in the spring, reportedly because he refused to drop an investigation into a helicopter flyby at Kid Rock's house, and a former staffer to President Donald Trump said the episode raised alarming questions.
The Pentagon chief abruptly fired Gen. Randy George in April after the four-star general was told by his own second-in-command, Gen. Chris LaNeve, that Hegseth wanted the probe ended, and former White House communications director Mike Dubke said the rock star's proximity was irrelevant.
"I'm going to take a step back here," Dubke said. "I think the whole tying this into Kid Rock is the wrong way to look at it. [This] is really the chilling of frank and honest speech within the Pentagon. We want that. I think the downside of what we've seen here and the real harm that Hegseth would be bringing with this, is chilling of that speech."
"If you are a junior general who is rising up through the ranks," Dubke added, "and you see everyone that's above you get tossed because they had the audacity of telling civilian leadership something they didn't want to hear, what is that going to do to you that is going to make you probably shut your mouth a little bit more and not give the honest assessment that we need, that the civilian leadership needs, that the administration needs to hear. That is what's worrying to me."
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is also on the way out, Dubke said, and he pinned the blame on Hegseth's paranoia.
"If Driscoll is out, and the reports are that he and Hegseth butt heads, and he may, you know, the scuttlebutt in Washington was he was the obvious choice to replace Hegseth," Dubke said. "I'm sure Hegseth is purging him. These are the things that disturb me because I want civilian leadership over an honest military that will tell the civilian leadership things they don't want to hear. They don't have to do it, but they should hear it."
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