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| From: | The Washington Post | <email@washingtonpost.com> |
| To: | ||
| Subject: | The Daily 202: Ousted Navy secretary warns Trump that ‘the rule of law is what sets us apart from our adversaries’ | |
| Sent: | Mon, 25 Nov 2019 15:47:59 +0000 | |
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Ousted Navy secretary warns Trump that ‘the rule of law is what sets us apart from our adversaries’¶
Richard V. Spencer visits the Blue Angels at the squadron’s hangar in Pensacola, Fla., on Nov. 5. He was forced out on Sunday as secretary of the Navy. (Schumaker/Navy/EPA-EFE/Rex)¶
HOHMANN¶
with Mariana Alfaro¶
THE BIG IDEA: What makes America exceptional isn’t any arsenal. It’s moral authority.¶
That’s the upshot of Richard V. Spencer’s Sunday letter to President Trump, acknowledging his “termination” as secretary of the navy. The messy circumstances surrounding Spencer’s exit should not overshadow another damning resignation letter from another Trump appointee.¶
Spencer explained that he has strived over two-plus years on the job to ensure judicial proceedings are “fair, transparent and consistent,” from ensigns to admirals.¶
“Unfortunately, it has become apparent that in this respect, I no longer share the same understanding with the Commander in Chief who appointed me, in regards to the key¶
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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.”¶
His language goes further than Jim Mattis’s letter last December when he resigned as secretary of defense to protest Trump ordering U.S. troops to withdraw from Syria, but there are echoes. Both Spencer and Mattis said Trump deserves someone whose views are better aligned with his own.¶
Spencer was ousted over his efforts to resolve a dispute between the White House and Navy commanders who wanted to strip Edward Gallagher of the Trident pin that makes him a Navy SEAL. Gallagher’s was one of three cases in the military justice system that Trump intervened in 10 days ago. The chief petty officer was accused of committing war crimes during a 2017 deployment in Iraq. He was acquitted of murder but convicted in July of posing with the corpse of an Islamic State prisoner. Trump reinstated Gallagher’s rank after he was demoted as part of his punishment. The president tweeted on Thursday that he doesn’t want Gallagher, who has become a cause celebre on Fox News, kicked out of the SEALs.¶
“The rule of law is what sets us apart from our adversaries,” Spencer told Trump, offering a brief history lesson. “Good order and discipline is what has enabled our victory against foreign tyranny time and again, from Captain Lawrence’s famous order ‘Don’t Give up the Ship,’ to the discipline and determination that propelled our flag to the highest point on Iwo Jima. The Constitution, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, are the shields that set us apart, and the beacons that protect us all.”¶
— Disdain for the rule of law has been a recurring feature of Trumpism.¶
— Spencer, 65, served in the Marines as an aviator from 1976 to 1981, separating as a captain, before making a fortune on Wall Street. He has been secretary of the Navy since the Senate confirmed him in August 2017. In his letter, he praised the troops who will soon miss their Thanksgiving dinners at home so that they can continue the watch beyond the curve of the horizon.¶
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“As Secretary of the Navy, one of the most important responsibilities I have to our people is to maintain good order and discipline throughout the ranks,” Spencer wrote. “I regard this as deadly serious business. The lives of our Sailors, Marines and civilian teammates quite literally depend on the professional execution of our many missions, and they also depend on the ongoing faith and support of the people we serve and the allies we serve alongside.”¶
Edward Gallagher and his wife, Gallagher, celebrate in July after a military jury in San Diego acquitted the Navy SEAL of premeditated murder in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive under his care in Iraq. (Gregory Bull/AP)¶
— Pentagon spokespeople said Defense Secretary Mark Esper asked for Spencer’s resignation after losing confidence in him. Their explanation is that Esper became “deeply troubled” when he discovered Spencer was backchanneling with the White House to offer a secret deal in which a review board would decide to let Gallagher keep his Trident pin – and affiliation with the SEALs – if Trump didn’t directly meddle in the official peer-review process, thereby maintaining the appearance of independence.¶
— “Spencer had tried to find a compromise,” Ignatius reports in his column,¶
“after Trump tweeted Thursday, ‘The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin.’ Spencer feared that a direct order from Trump to protect Gallagher, who is represented by two former partners of Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani, would be seen as subverting military justice. After that Trump tweet, Spencer cautioned acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney that he would not overturn the planned SEAL peer review of Gallagher without a direct presidential order; he privately told associates that if such an order came, he might resign rather than carry it out. …¶
“‘It was a hold-your-nose solution,’ said a source close to Spencer about his effort to broker an arrangement that would allow Gallagher to retire at the end of November with his former rank, an honorable discharge and his Trident pin, as Trump wanted, but without direct presidential interference in the SEAL review process. As so often happens with attempts to work with Trump’s erratic demands, this one ended in¶
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disaster. ‘The president wants you to go,’ Esper told Spencer on Sunday … Esper then toed the White House line and announced Spencer’s dismissal. …¶
“Trump began lobbying Spencer to exempt Gallagher from Navy discipline back in March, when he ordered the Navy secretary in an early-morning phone call to release Gallagher from the brig and give him more comfortable quarters. Presidential pressure has been relentless, ever since. … While Gallagher is celebrated on Fox, current and former senior officers of the SEALs and other elite units told me this weekend that his case has little support within the community of Special Operations forces. One former SEAL commander noted that maintaining discipline among these elite units is so important that the SEAL peer-review panels have removed more than 150 Trident pins since 2011, or more than one a month.”¶
— Trump now gets the outcome he wanted: Esper’s aides said he will let Gallagher keep his Trident pin without even the pretense of a review board. And Trump has rid himself of someone he came to disregard as disloyal, based on his threat to resign.¶
— Spencer joins a growing list of former Trump appointees who have spoken critically, to varying degrees, about the president after leaving his employ. This includes, among others, John Bolton, Rex Tillerson, John Kelly, Tom Bossert, Fiona Hill and Gary Cohn.¶
— Spencer took the sting out of this punch by vigorously denying well-sourced press reports on Saturday that he had threatened to resign. In the version of his letter distributed to media outlets last night, the date “24 Nov 19” has been scrawled by hand on the top right of a letter that was reportedly drafted last week. The denial of accurate media accounts muddies the narrative around the secretary’s departure.¶
— This appears to be the coda of a contentious chapter in a civilian-military relationship that has grown increasingly fraught. Trump avoided military service by claiming bone spurs. He has stated that avoiding sexually transmitted infections while bedding models in New York during the 1970s was “my personal Vietnam.” Trump has insulted several war heroes, as well as their families, and never apologized.¶