If you’ve followed our CTH review, research and analysis of the issues at hand, you will understand our position was that this situation, if true, had a very clear command expectation from U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
It has just been announced that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has requested the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer (pictured below) for violating the unified chain of command, blackmailing the President of the United States with an ultimatum, and hiding the threat from the Secretary of Defense.
WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper asked for the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer on Sunday after losing confidence in him over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, the Pentagon said.
Esper asked for Spencer’s resignation after learning that he had privately proposed to White House officials that if they did not interfere with proceedings against Gallagher, then Spencer would ensure that Gallagher was able to retire as a Navy SEAL, with his Trident insignia.
Spencer’s private proposal to the White House — which he did not share with Esper over the course of several conversations about the matter — contradicted his public position on the Gallagher case, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.
Esper said in the statement that he was “deeply troubled by this conduct.”
“Unfortunately, as a result I have determined that Secretary Spencer no longer has my confidence to continue in his position,” Esper said. “I wish Richard well.”
Spencer’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Esper and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, learned of Spencer’s private offer to the White House when they spoke with President Trump on Friday, Hoffman said. (read more)
Allow me to reassert, this is exactly the required outcome.
The military, nor any person therein, does not get to “threaten” the President of The United States. The President is the Commander in Chief of all armed forces. It is not President Trump who would be doing “untold damage to decades of military justice doctrine“, but rather the insubordination of flag officers who are duty bound to carry out legal and constitutional instructions from the President.
The DoD inaction surrounding Lt. Col Vindman was a precursor, a visible symptom few were paying attention to; indicating a political cancer within the unified chain of command. The U.S. Secretary of the Navy threatening the U.S. President is an even more alarming symptom.
A military officer does not get to threaten his leadership with a ‘do what I demand or I will quit’ approach. Any senior level military officer who would express such a sentiment would be regarded as unstable, compromised and unfit to hold a leadership rank.
Yes, it really is that simple.
Navy Secretary Richard V Spencer compromised his position within the unified command structure. There is no room for insubordination at this level, and gross manipulation of command authority for an independent agenda that is against the expressed will of the President of the United States; the Commander in Chief of all Armed Services.
The worst, absolute worst thing, a military officer can do is to compromise the position of his leadership. Once that compromise is identified it must be removed, with extreme prejudice.
In this type of leadership compromise the chain-of-command does not request permission from the President who -in this example- is the Commander targeted by the compromise. The immediate commanding officer (Def Sec Esper) has a duty to remove the compromise without conversation (regarding corrective action) with his superior officer, in this case President Trump, until such time as the compromise has been relieved, and subordination issue corrected. Then the corrective action is discussed with the President.
Defense Secretary Esper made exactly the right decision.
Esper has suggested to Trump that Kenneth Braithwaite, a retired Navy rear admiral who is currently the U.S. ambassador to Norway, be considered as the next Navy secretary.
One issue still remains, what about the compromise remaining from the conduct of Lt. Col Alexander Vindman?
Defense Secretary Mark Esper (right), with President Donald Trump.
“Blackmail” implies they had dirt on POTUS that they were using as leverage. What happened was all kinds of wrong, but “blackmail” it was not.
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Exactly and in fact double checked and it was not Spencer who threatened to resign but the admiral, I am surprised Sundance got this so wrong..
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You need to check the third definition down.
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Sundance did not get it wrong. Spencer offered to “fix” a military law proceeding, in exchange for PDJT “overlooking” spencers public disobedience of the Commander in Chief. Spencer ignored and went around his chain of command to secdef Esper, with his perfidy. Spencer and advance-to-the-rear admiral green were both together in the public disobedience display.
Lets see how many others PDJT can get to creep out of their deep swamp hiding holes.
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And POTUS gave Spencer the task of straightening out JAG corruption issues this past summer. Probably knowing Spencer couldn’t accomplish it because Spencer was a part of it.
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OK, we’ll call it extortion then.
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That is much closer to accurate without suggesting that POTUS is hiding something. Language matters.
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The blackmail part was defined by Spencer threatening the president with his public resignation if he doesn’t get what he wants, thusly causing the president serious PR problems, from the military, exactly when he doesn’t need any problems.
Seems pretty cut and dried to me.
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That is not at all blackmail. Blackmail is threatening to reveal unfavorable information about a person if payment or some other demand is not met. They had nothing on POTUS.
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okey dokey
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Actually, maybe it WAS blackmail.
“Mr. President, If you don’t do what I want, I’m gonna tell everyone you’re a murderer.”
“I’m not a murderer, and you know it. You’ve got nothing.”
“Oh yeah, well how are you feeling right now? I can see in your eyes you’d like to hurt me. You’d like to KILL me, wouldn’t you? I can keep this up for a long time, till you just lose total control and…”
“Okay, you’ve got a point. So for your sake and mine… what do you want me to do?”
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That’s the way I understand it. It’s the threat of revealing something damaging which constitutes blackmail. The damaging info could be true or false.
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“blackmail” was picked over “extortion” and several other alternatives in extensive focus group testing. /s
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Exactly what this makes me think of…sigh.
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It was intimidation..like the rest of the Six ways from Sunday Crowd are doing..It’s disrupt everything the president is doing to lose balance ..They know its the end..and what the with jail or loss of careers..they have nothing to lose…
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That seems more like extortion..
Blackmail :
action, treated as a criminal offense, of demanding payment or another benefit from someone in return for not revealing compromising or damaging information about them.
in my mind blackmail there would be, mr. President if you don’t do what I’m asking you to then I will release X information , or something like that.
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The blackmail as I understood it was that if the White House did not do what he wanted the to do he was going to quit, and cause a ruckus. That is blackmail. If you dont give me this thing, I will do this thing to you (causing a public scandal). Maybe I missed something as I am not fully read up on it, and it is a little complicated (sort of a double triple negative type thing)
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an inverse qid pro quo, if that is a thing?
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The leverage is/was the perceived instability and chaos within the administration. Basically more media fodder. The admin, if you can’t tell, is trying to minimize that narrative.
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Adm Green should be putting in his retirement papers…but he’s too arrogant a used arse-paper wipe to do anything but get fired after a DoD JAG investigation of his command interference with the CPO Gallagher trial.
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As to Vindman, I’d refer him to JAG with a testimony in the record that is ipso facto countermanding a superior’s lawful order, not to mention probably violating numerous other regs and laws. By the way, did he declare that he was allegedly offered a job by the Ukranians? That’s grounds for loss of clearance minimum, on top of which it places him in a precarious position of probable conflict of interest due to all of the surrounding facts. An IG on the alert would have smoked this guy out, given reports that he expressed worrisome sentiments.
Referring him would take the matter out of the political realm and dispense with any claims of political retribution. His peers would see to that.
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I was told last night that Vindman is actually a retired Lt. Col. I had not seen any news sites refer to him as that. Does anyone know if that is true?
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Everything I can find shows Vindman is active military.
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Sounds good but the devil is in the details….I don’t believe there is anything apolitical about LTC Vindman and more to the point, ANY reassignment, admin or judicial actions against him, will be exploited by the likes of Schiff and his close friends over at NT Times and WaPo.
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In a lot of ways I’ve been frustrated with the appointments and hold overs Trump has made in his first term. Many of these people are obstructing his agenda from with in, or at least trying to and failing, but in the end we have a President who relied on career professionals to be, well, professional. How did we get to this point where the political capital in this country is void of the slightest modicum of professionalism? Maybe it’s always been this way.
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Most have been petty bureaucrats. You would have to be in office half your life. How about the Legislature do their job of oversite rather than embezzling the American Treasure.
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That’s the reason why Pompeo is thinking of quitting and running for the Senate seat in KS. He did not clean house at the State Dept of Obama and Clinton holdovers.
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…or the CIA!
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Would Trump be expecting Pompei to do the house cleaning ?
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Would Trump be expecting Pompei to do the house cleaning ?
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OR the SOS could task the janitor to sweep out the trash. Just maybe the SOS or the Boss of the State Department is responsible for who is employed UNDER him?
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If Esper has the duty to remove the compromise without conversion in regards to Spencer, then I presume the same scenario would apply to Vindman? As long as PDJT doesn’t know what Esper does prior to him doing it, then the fake news and demonrats have nothing to squeel about, though they will anyway.
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Can Vindman be fired AND de-frocked?
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What do you mean….”de-frocked?”
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You mean plucked and fried?
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Brother Eddie carries the flame
While The Donald throws down the lightning and pain
The Deep State Monster they will assail
The American battle-call will wail
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I am not sure this country will ever recover from the 8 years of Obama. Those that controlled that fool got a lot of bang for their buck.
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I think Obama played within the system. All of DC, including the media, has simply kept quiet bout it for who knows how long…50-60 years? Trump is causing the system to expose itself.
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I am not sure this country will ever recover from Jimmy Carter and his advisor Zbigniew Brezezinski, thanks to Mika’s daddy we lost the panama Canal, and overthrew the Shah of Iran for starters.
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Going outside of the chain of command and attempting to obscure it is evidence of irresponsible behavior, completely justifying SecDef’s loss of confidence in him as an officer. Doesn’t matter what he said, he said it to the wrong person and he lied about it. End of story.
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People as Spencer get people killed.
We had an ejection-seat which worked fine and was trustworthy. It was somehow determined the seat needed modification (Mod). This meant millions of dollars for the seat manufacture. The seat was tested but had killed at least five “dummies” during tests. We were not told the test results and unknowingly were flying with potential deadly ejection-seats.
The General in Command knew the seats were faulty but ordered the modification anyway. There was 7-aviators killed over the course of a year as a result of this faulty seat and my fellow squadron flying-buddy being one of them. I was on the investigation team and learned “why” the seat was deadly from the get go. Was the commanding General as well as a Congressman’s palms being greased by the seat manufacture?
My buddies wife sued and won the case with a large settlement, but did not get her husband back.
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I’m sorry you experienced that.
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I was scheduled to fly that aircraft (Poppa November 080) but cancelled the morning hop for the afternoon go. My buddy took my place and his fate would had been anyone who took that flight at that time in that aircraft. I will never forget its tail-number.
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My dad survived a similar situation.. Never understood why he kept the plaque from the seat manufacturer.. Deep down I guess I do understand..
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Kurt Schlichter’s column for tomorrow, Nov 25, 2019 (which, unfortunately for Schlichter, is already out-of-date but still excellent)
Schlichter is a retired Army colonel who holds a masters in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College. He is also a trial lawyer and a writer…and despised by the Dem political and media lefties which makes him a prince in my book.
“Fire the Admirals to Encourage the Others”
“…President Donald Trump needs to relieve the commander of the Naval Special Forces Command. And then he needs to relieve that guy’s boss for failing to relieve his subordinate. Oh, and he also needs to relieve the chief of information, or whatever they call the head public affairs guy for the Navy, for allowing his command to issue passive aggressive statements disrespectful of the President.
“And the garbage Secretary of the Navy, who allegedly told “the White House that a tweet is not an official order and if the president is ordering the Navy to end the Trident Review Board of Gallagher, he needs to do so in writing.” Can him.”
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2019/11/25/fire-the-admirals-to-encourage-the-others—p–n2556977?utm_source=schlichterdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&bcid=584da6ab6e9f239432be75eaee4ccd71&pid=a1c192ab-9d37-4e31-945f-978c3d450921
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Kurt enjoys going after NeverTrump tools like Bill Kristol or Jonah Goldberg on a regular basis. He’s at his most glorious when doing that!
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Schlichter simply cracks me up while putting out with facts and letting us know where he stands on all things Conservative.
Looks like I’m going to have to buy some of his books. If he writes novels as well as he does his columns, they’re bound to be fun reads.
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I’d like some realistic ideas as to exactly what Spencer had planned to do to Gallagher IF the WH had agreed to his proposal.
Hes’ aid Gallagher would retain his Trident pin, but what would be the downside? Dishonorable discharge? New additional charges?
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A pre-determined result of any kind in a legal proceeding is criminal.
Why, that would be like the FISC court repeatedly rubber-stamping a pre-determined phony, clearly-political spy-warrant on the President via the crazy “2-hop” rule, based on a knowingly false claim a low-level FBI/CIA asset was a dangerous russian spy threatening our national security.
Conspiring pre-determined legal results should result in prison time, for officers, DoD judges, and federal judges,
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Thank you, Sundance, for doing your diligent (as always!) research to gather all the pertinent facts. I raised the alarm on this situation in the Open Thread on Friday (22 November).
I must admit that my patriotic zeal took over, and my post ended with having all involved walk the plank, because the SecNav would not, in my humble opinion, have taken such a reckless undertaking upon himself without at least testing the waters, and assessing the amount of support he would have from his senior officers. My only “proof” being that Rear Adm. Green had commented much like Spencer did – that he would resign if forced to accept Chief Gallagher remaining a SEAL. Also, as with Spencer, I cannot believe he would risk everything if he did not believe he had some serious damn juice behind him…..like perhaps maybe most of the entire USN Command!
Anyway, I believe there are several more individuals involved in this, either by commission or omission, and I stand by my previous post as to their punishment(s). This was a damn MUTINY, committed by some of the most senior USN Commanders (I don’t believe Green was all by himself), against the Commander in Chief!!!
President Trump was far too lenient, in my opinion, of Secretary Spencer — he should NOT have allowed him to resign, but rather should have FIRED him with extreme public prejudice. As for Rear Admiral Green, IF the facts prove to be similar to Spencer’s (i.e. threatening resignation), he should be adjudicated through the UCMJ for committing a MUTINY against the President of the United States……reduced in rank to E-1, forfeiture of ALL retirement allowances, and sentenced to 20 years hard labor at Ft. Leavenworth. Similarly, any other active duty personnel supporting said MUTINY should also be adjudicated and punished accordingly.
I never, ever imagined such a public breakdown of discipline and total disregard for our Chain of Command could happen within our Armed Forces. I fully realize that it takes years to repair the damage to our Armed Forces, wrought by democrats every time they gain control of the White House, but the purges of Ol’ Sparklefarts have truly been devastating to both readiness and morale.
President Trump should use this MUTINY to clear out as many Obama Officers as possible, in my humble opinion.
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As we used to say when I was enlisted Navy… “F*ckin’ A!”
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Our President is a genius at getting Traitors to show themselves “without” directly confronting them.
He lures them out into the open by baiting their weakness.
And the largest weakness people have is their “self importance and their false sense of power.
In this case the ones who abuse the Military Justice System. (Gallagher issue)
Does anyone really think the Military Justice System has never “screwed anyone over” because of politics or because a service member made a Commander “Look Bad?”
Or Politics?
Our President just showed who is actually in charge and the Military Justice System will not be used as some sort of “Star Chamber”.
Vindamin will be punished. He actually violated many UCMJ codes of conduct.
The first is….. “his chain of command” allowing his seditious testimony before Congress.
However, any actions by the President “now” on Vindamin, before the Impeachment is over may be considered obstruction.
So, Vindamin will be taken care of later….too many violations to ignore…
Trust our President.
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Vindman could be called to testify again if Nanzi does not see the light and go for censure instead.
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I don’t know…I think there are far more questions we need to have answered and I’m a little fuzzy on some of this…and a lot fuzzy on some other parts of this. I don’t think the Navy Secretary talking with the President about this issue and saying he will take care of the issue or resign is a problem…if that is what it was…and that may be all that it was. Maybe he was being straight and intended to take care of it properly but the Defense Secretary just didn’t like it. Who knows what really went on. But the problem I’m concerned about here is that the guy in charge of all the Navy special operations teams, this Admiral Green and he seems like he really has it in for a few of the SEAL Team operators. It seems like Green may be one of the guys who wants the military to do nothing in the face of anti-American attacks. Is this Admiral Green one of the guys who would start operations and call them off at the last second before anything was accomplished? There were many reports that, under obama, thousands of air sortees were flown with failure to drop ordinance because orders were not confirmed or were cancelled at the last minute. How many SEAL were lost due to lack of orders to engage or “fuzzy” rules of engagement??? Was a guy like Admiral Green angry that some SEAL operators were actually taking action and succeeding at killing the enemy? Was Admiral Green actually thwarting our military personnel’s efforts to succeed?????????
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And which Admirals were in cahoots with Spencer? Sounds like the Seal Command Admiral may have been.
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I’m going to interrupt here to say this-
WINNING!
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The Navy Brass hat’s can’t let this go. SECDEF Esper cannot defend the Navy Brass from themselves the way he protected the Navy as an institution by firing NAVSEC Spencer.
The Navy is going to see the Ford class CV cancelled and every Brass hat was involved in it’s development will get the hook.
Go back and read Pres. Trump’s Spencer firing tweet referencing US Navy procurement.
This is why Esper did as he did with Spencer.
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Navy Brass deserves a shake up and so do the other branches. Too comfy and wasteful IMO.
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I am SO VERY PROUD of my Commander In chief. May The LORD GOD bless and protect you President Trump!
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1. IIRC there wasn’t there some form of public commitment from the WH / POTUS about staying out of the proceedings, or was that disinformation on the part of the NYT?
2. I have some sympathy with the Secretary of the Navy being unsure if a tweet should be considered an official order, since it is certainly conveyed outside of normal command channels! But the appropriate response to the press was “no comment” followed by a request for clarification to SecDef.
3. In the absence of some kind of emergency, the chain of command should be obeyed “going down” as well as “going up”.
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Ray, my understanding is that spencer proposed “fixing” a military legal proceeding, which is criminal (on condition his public dispute was allowed to continue). He went around his chain of command, hiding his offer to “fix” the legal proceeding from Esper.
He could have instead called/texted:
“Hi, Spencer here. I understand that you want Gallagher to keep his Seal membership, and not be harassed by the lawyers anymore. If that is not an order, let me know. Otherwise, I will stop the harassment. I believe advance-to-the-rear admiral green should be relieved of duty for bad judgement. If I do not hear from you to the contrary, I will take care of this also.”
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Spencer thought he was untouchable for challenging Trump. This is the culture of arrogant invulnerability and unaccountability that we’ve created. Trump is way too tolerant and soft when it comes to these personnel screw-ups. What happened to “you’re fired.”
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@ freespeechfanatic… Re “What happened to ‘you’re fired.’”
It got canceled by, “Never deal unless you can deal from a position of strength.”
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I am so happy, this is the only justice we have seen since POTUS became president. The FBI, DIA, CIA and all of the intelligence agencies need to be run in like military.. No Human Resources, no union contracts, no Senior Executive Services. Our POTUS says you’re gone, you are gone. No bullsh@t no questions, done deal. It’s basically the only real win we have got. Thank god!
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My Uncle, Fred Korth was Secretary of the Navy under John Kennedy. He was forced out because of how he handled the F-111 Aardvark fighter program. We lived in DC during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He came over one night and briefed my parents as to what was happening, and he called often “to say hi.” He told me later in life that being the SecNav was toughest job he ever had, saying he got “incoming” from above and below.
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The press is currently trying to SANITIZE his image with claims that his letter of resignation harkens back to that of James Mattis:
“They both resigned due to differences of opinion into po!icy matters, and stepped aside because POTUS ‘deserves like -minded people ‘ to implement his po!icies.”
HOGWASH
This is yet another media driven attempt to “flip the script” to make insubordinate Deepstaters look like heroes. They’re actually seditious 5th columnists.
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Trump (or Esper, I guess) removing this guy is a pretty big deal. But it is exactly what had to be done, and quickly, to prevent it from being a HUGE deal. Because even though it’s big, it’s nothing compared to if Trump had hesitated. Some big shot in the military decides to argue, both publicly and privately, with the President? If that President (Trump or any other) does nothing, he will be accused of being WEAK. Which basically translates into NOT BEING IN CHARGE. No way can a president allow that to stand. What was idiot Spencer thinking?
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I’ve also got the impression that Esper wasn’t upset that Spencer undercut Trump, but that Spencer undercut Esper.
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That same thought occurred to me!
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Is this not somewhat like the DOJ and Judiciary manipulating the case of General Michael Flynn? I think this kind of corrupt manipulation is running rampant throughout our government.
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Yes, it is exactly like a corrupt DOJ and corrupt Judiciary (FISC with phony political FISA Warrants knowing they are illegal, and Federal judges in the in General Flynn case) which is running rampant throughout our government.
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Okay, you just made a little lightbulb turn on in my brain… this has the potential to be MUCH bigger than just this one guy and this one case, even bigger than Trump himself. If people believe that Spencer COULD indeed have rigged the decision-making process in this case, he could also do it in ANY case… and anyone else in his position could do the same in any number of OTHER cases. In other words, the whole “justice system” in the military could be shown to be a sham. Hmm… that’s kind of a BIG deal.
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Yes, the kind of sham that was perpetrated on Gallagher, and was being perpetrated on those Seals who testified in his defense.
There are WAY too many lawyers in the DoD. The number of lawyers, their rank, and authorty should be reduced by a factor of 10. We do not need “lawfare” harassing our warriors in warfare.
We also do not need stupid crooks overspending on stupid projects, which PDJT also alluded to. Lots of supernumerary “brass” needs to be replaced with decent, effective, honest people.
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Hey Sundance, here’s something I just posted down at the end of the thread, but wanted to copy it here in the hopes that you’re more likely to see it. Because I need to know if I’m over-reacting to this…
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Oh, man, this just makes me admire our President all the more. Bravo, President Trump!
And may God bless your Presidency to the last second of the morning on January 20, 2025 when you retire as the greatest President of the United States any of us have seen in our lifetimes.
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He wishes him well? I don’t. I’m sick of traitors. Spencer got off lightly.
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Well then, your handle is hypocritical.
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@ David R. Graham… “Well then, your handle is hypocritical.”
Not at all… The fact that freespeechfanatic expressed a different opinion has no bearing on the other person’s freedom to express HIS opinion.
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If there is a confirmation of Blackmail crime committed by Richard V. Spencer, then this should result in the arrest and confinement of Richard V. Spencer and a trial in a court of law – if there is not a two-tiered justice system in the USSA.
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Along these same lines, if anyone wants to see some of the underbelly of the military, then check out military corruption dot com.
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Once again, Sundance NAILS IT. Bravo!
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But why the hell did Esper “ask” for Spencer’s resignation after insubordination, and then “wish him well”??
Two words: “You’re fired!” and have him escorted out of the building.
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In reading both the President’s tweet as well as Esper’s statement, it is notable that both called him by his first name. I don’t think they meant it to be friendly.
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I’ve been dealing with people on Twitter all day that seriously have no idea of what the Constitution says and what the Presidents powers are in terms of pardon and as Commander in Chief. They are trying to say this guy is some sort of hero and that Trump is a dictator and abusing his powers and blah blah blah. One person respectfully asked a couple of questions on PM asking isn’t there a separation of powers? I’m like um, yeah, but Trump is the CIC and has absolute pardon power over federal crimes of all kinds If you don’t like what he does, your only remedy is to vote them out of office, or wait until their 2 terms end. You know. Like we had to do with Clinton and Obama.
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That it went on this long before someone caught on and NavSec was removed indicates systemic rot.
Clear out everything from the 5th to the 7th floor so to speak.
Remember those war games where one of the teams sank half the US navy with makeshift speed boats and it was swept under the rug?
THAT GUY needs to become the new NavSec.
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Clear out everything from the 5th to the 7th floor so to speak.
Sadly, the same can probably be said of DOJ and State. And probably all of the other federal agencies.
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Power corrupts. The concept of our Founders is the peaceful transition of power. But we have an entrenched, increasingly corrupt and hereditary royal bureaucracy in civilian government and the military, which needs to be replaced.
What PDJT is revealing is the royal and internecine structure which has developed. The CIA selects and plants its assets, as a long-term plan. Children of the Royal deep state are selected and appointed, moving through Agencies with selection bias. Married POWER COUPLES and families are promoted and preferred. Foreign aid Kickbacks, big government contracts, special regulations, government loan guarantees, go to the Royal government. The many individual examples are being revealed.
Disgusting.
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The actions of the JAG are a continuing example of how badly they have degraded over the years. They seemingly have gone from lawyers knowledgeable about military law, to rabid ACLU-types willing to do whatever it takes to defend Mr. I-Hate-America.
It reminds me of an article I read years ago in which some JAGoff in Iraq exerted authority she did not have and ordered a specific sniper round that was properly issued by the military could not be used. If you read anything about it, it becomes clear just how clueless she was in her thinking. I suspect similar JAGoff’s went after Gallagher.
I did find the article I read then:
https://www.blackfive.net/main/2006/01/army_jag_bans_e.html
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I have no doubt that Spencer thought he was safe and PDJT wouldn’t have the cojones to remove him after being weakened by the House impeachment hearings. Clearly Spencer listened to his 2nd in command suck up that told him whatever he wanted to hear.
What’s even more surprising is Spencer’s thought that going around his boss directly to the WH was a good idea. Attempts to go around the boss can get you fired …
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Can you spell leadership? I can: T-R-U-M-P! Is there any wonder the left has completely lost their minds?
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Why is Spencer allowed to simply walk away from this into retirement, I presume? Another crime gone unpunished. Since when is losing your job the appropriate punishment for fixing a court marshal or whatever it was Gallagher was facing, besides doing time? Everywhere you look nowadays criminals run free.
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Life isn’t always fair or just, right? And because the swamp is so deep it’s going to take many years to clean it up. I’m choosing to be happy with “better” rather than “perfect”. I’m glad Spencer is gone. I’m glad Clinesmith is gone. And Strzok, Page, McCabe, Comey, etc.
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It is deeply troubling that Esper and Milley went to the White House to ask for continuance of CPO Gallgher’s review board, after Pres Trump had made his wishes known.
There is still a cancer at the very top of our military, which will not change unless some attitudes and discipline are changed. The deliberate ignoring of MR Vindman’s insubordination is unforgivable.
It is equally troubling that Socialist democrats and Progressives are on the side of the Wall Street guy.
Their TDS has rendered them all senseless. Socialist democrats and Progressives defending a Wall Street guy. smh
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While there are many institutions within government which should be devoid of politics, the US military, sworn to obey the orders of the president of the United States is the last which should and among the most dangerous when is does.
Obama was an agent of complete corruption. Even the military has been completely corrupted. It’s disgusting. It’s why my son left the nuclear navy despite a very very generous reenlistment bonus.
Elections have consequences, as Obama said. I’m a little dad Trump hasn’t removed more corrupt leaders in the military but it’s kind of a game of whack-a-mole as it is.
I hope things improve in 2020… I’m not losing faith and not giving up. But as a veteran, I want to see more.
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Not sure how I feel about this, too much language above my head. Reading lots of negative comments on other conservative blogs, trusting my VSGDJT thru everything. Only time will tell, I’m sure.
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From the tweet in the article:
“he promised the board would in the end allow Gallagher to keep his Trident and rank.”
So I guess military doctrine, legal procedures etc., only mean so much. That line above clearly says Spencer was promising to interfere with the board review regardless of what they decided. He was also dictating terms to POTUS on how he would carry out his intentions by making his promise.
It would not have surprised me at all then if the board ruled unfavorably, suddenly Spencer woukld forget about his promise, expecting the media to cover for him. Rat B@st@rd.
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IIRC, the review board consists of Gallagher’s peers, so maybe a positive outcome was almost assured. If that is the case, Spencer was doubly stupid going to POTUS with no real leverage.
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Democrats see honor in being corrupt dishonest and snivling self serving rat turds.
Schmuckey Chuckey out in front…anything goes when you oppose!
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So in other words, he was a turncoat and deserved to be fired. This guy can’t seem to make up his mind. He’s got so many different narratives going on at this point, it’s no wonder he had to go.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7721023/Navy-Secretary-Richard-Spencer-resigns-private-proposal-Navy-SEAL-Edward-Gallaghers-case.html
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“One issue still remains, what about the compromise remaining from the conduct of Lt. Col Alexander Vindman?”
In some respects, removing Spencer was a clear cut case with clear evidence warranting his removal. He serves at the pleasure of POTUS, was a civilian, went around his chain to negotiate terms of compliance with what POTUS intended, was caught and is now fired. I suspect his offer to the WH to put his finger on the scale of the review board was very recent since Esper just found out Friday. Blind-sided is not a good term for your supervisor to use when referring to your actions.
I can say I am shocked someone so stupid was put in such a position. Stupid because he thought he could get away with ignoring his chain of command. I guess working on Wall Street caused him to forget that.
As for Vindman. I still believe he will get what he justly deserves. It’s disheartening to hear Morrison had suspicions of his leaking and did nothing. Whatever. Vindman is up to his eyeballs in political activity, some of his own choosing. I suspect there are investigations into his activities, and once this political circus is over, he will be dealt with as fast as a free-wheeling Naval Secretary.
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Just thought of something else, that could have made all this MUCH worse:
Let’s say Spencer had been able to convince Trump to go along with him, in “rigging” the outcome of the upcoming proceedings. And then what if later, Spencer’s plan got found out, and he was prosecuted or in some other way punished? He would then have been able to TRUTHFULLY say, “The President knew I was going to do this, and he gave me the go-ahead.”
And that right there may have been a REAL impeachable offense!
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Could that have been the PLAN?
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I’m beginning to think this was another setup. Offer POTUS a new quid pro quo to walk into.
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Yes, see my comment just above. Trump may have really dodged a bullet here.
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Well…russia russia russia failed…
Ukraine quid pro no go failed…
They are in Jaws 3D territory
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We need allot more of this. Put up controversial to the politick liberals but common sense to the gen pop proposals ideas actions to flush out these pansy plants O and previous admins had either implanted or allowed to infiltrate our civil services. Then fire them or if firing doesn’t happen fire the leadership then fire them. Flush em out.
The military especially the navy side was not immune to the washington mindset disease. Hell we were paying over 100 per gal for diesel for our great green fleet and turning out studies changes ect… based on how to deal with global warming from the military side. This is while China was rising, Russia was resurgent, Iran speeding to a regional power, and ISIS controlling a territory larger than most nations.
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Was just reviewing the transcript of Glenn Simpson before the senate judiciary committee in August 2017 for a comment on another thread and noted that Simpson had testified that late Senator John McCain and his aide David Kramer met British diplomat Sir Andrew Wood at an intelligence conference in Halifax shortly after the 2016 presidential election. It has been speculated that was where McCain received a copy of the dossier which Kramer later leaked to Buzzfeed. While I didn’t recall the meeting location from my initial reading of that particular transcript, I noted it this go around since that it was this years intelligence conference in Halifax that served as the backdrop to Former SECNAV Spencer press interview where he denied threatening POTUS. Strange goings on at that particular conference.
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Alternate train of thought:
Was this possibly a failed setup of PDJT?
To wit: Spencer circumvented chain of command to offer POTUS a “deal”. Later Spencer drops the “bombshell” that POTUS improperly intervened by suggesting/demanding Spencer inject himself into the review proceedings for a positive outcome for Gallagher – thereby giving more ammunition to the impeachment crowd.
“There are trillions of dollars at stake”, and Spencer is a Wall Street guy now.
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It does sound awfully suspicious doesn’t it? I think he thought he’d rope Trump into some kind of compromise to save face and then let it leak out that Trump agreed to rig the outcome.
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