Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, acting earlier this month, struck four names from an Army one-star promotion list in a rare move that broke with usual practice.
- Two of the officers are Black and two are women, drawn from a pool of about three dozen candidates that senior officials said is largely white and male.
- Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll resisted months of pressure to drop the names, and Hegseth then removed them himself after that push failed.
- Officials question whether the defense secretary can lawfully delete individual names since secretaries typically approve or reject promotion lists as a whole, while a Pentagon spokesperson called the process apolitical and unbiased.
- Democratic leaders, including Sen. Jack Reed and heads of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus, launched inquiries, citing a broader pattern as Hegseth rolls back diversity policies and reshapes senior ranks.