“They want to keep it the brotherhood and don’t like that she’s coming in and challenging the status quo,” a Navy special operations source familiar with the situation told CNN.
One defense official familiar with the matter said there had been discussions about whether the role was necessary, and a Pentagon source said Hegseth was not involved and the captain's nomination was pulled because she was not a SEAL, but multiple sources told CNN they didn't buy those explanations.
“They can justify it by saying she’s not qualified because she’s not a SEAL,” said one retired SEAL. “But the SEALs thought she was qualified.”
CNN is not naming the captain, who did not respond to requests for comment, but the retired SEAL said the move clearly reflected Hegseth's views about women serving in the military and stated the Pentagon chief was a misogynist.
“I’m sure they would repeal the whole women in combat thing [if they could], but this is what they can do,” the retired SEAL said.
Hegseth has already removed several women from top leadership roles, and active-duty women – who make up about 18 percent of the U.S. military – and military veterans told CNN the self-styled "secretary of war" had made service less safe and more difficult for them.
“To be quite honest, I am fearful for women in uniform right now,” said Patti J. Tutalo, a retired Coast Guard commander who served on an advisory group for women in the military before it was shut down this year.
“I definitely think there will be a retention issue for women,” Tutalo added. “I also think that you’re going to see an increase in assaults, increase in harassment, increase in bullying, hazing, and I think there’ll be a lack of accountability for those things.”
The Navy captain's former SEAL Team Six comrades are furious about her command getting yanked.
“That’s horse s--t,” the former senior enlisted SEAL said.
The former SEAL voted for Trump and still supports him, but he said Hegseth's personal views were interfering with his ability to lead the military.
“I think my job is to protect women and children but occasionally there’s bada-- [women] out there, and we should capitalize and not limit ourselves,” he said.
The Navy special operations source pointed out the captain had been effective at recruiting women to special operations roles, and that person offered withering criticism of Hegseth.
“It p---es me off because it is clearly someone who is capable and has done extraordinary things and is being punished because of — and I hate that I have to say it this way — weak-a-- men,” that source said.
