Three-star Lt. Gen. Joe McGee had an important role at the Pentagon, advising Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine on long-term military strategy, including planning for crisis contingencies. It is a job, however, he will no longer do. The lieutenant general and decorated combat veteran stepped down earlier this month, retiring after 35 years of military service.
There is some question, however, as to whether McGee stepped down voluntarily or whether he was pushed out. CNN reported that the general was ousted after “months of sustained tensions” with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. From the report:
Lt. Gen. Joe McGee, the director for Strategy, Plans, and Policy on the Joint Staff, left his position earlier this month, the sources said. They added that McGee had frequently ‘pushed back’ against Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine on issues ranging from Russia and Ukraine to military operations in the Caribbean. The sources noted that McGee was nominated by former President Joe Biden nearly a year ago for a promotion to serve as director of the Joint Staff but was never renominated by the current administration.
A DOD spokesperson confirmed to multiple outlets that McGee stepped down, but the Pentagon’s press office denied the accuracy of the CNN report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC. (McGee did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.) That said, if the CNN report is accurate, the general’s departure is part of a larger and more systemic purge.
Indeed, it was just two weeks ago when the public learned about Adm. Alvin Holsey resigning as head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees all operations in Central and South America, reportedly because of concerns about the administration’s deadly military strikes against civilian targets in international waters.
Complicating matters is the sheer volume of U.S. military leaders who’ve left Hegseth’s Defense Department, either through firings or resignations. Just days before Holsey stepped down at SouthCom, the Pentagon chief fired Navy Chief of Staff Jon Harrison. (His ouster roughly coincided with two high-profile military retirements — Gen. Bryan Fenton, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, and Gen. Thomas Bussiere, a top Air Force commander — though it’s unclear if their departures had anything to do with Hegseth.)
There was no ambiguity, however, in late August when the defense secretary fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Rear Admiral Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversaw the Naval Special Warfare Command.
Four days earlier, Gen. David Allvin, the chief of staff of the Air Force, was also shown the door.
The broader purge also includes Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, who was both the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency; Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. James Slife, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force; Adm. Linda Fagan, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard; Adm. Lisa Franchetti; Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short; Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Berger III, the Army’s top military lawyer; Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer, the Air Force’s top military lawyer; and Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee.
Each of these instances is important in its own right, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees: There are growing concerns about a scandal-plagued former Fox News host who’s arguably destabilizing the U.S. military. Toward the end of his unsettling speech to the nation’s generals and admirals a month ago, in which his argument boiled down to an assertion that testosterone is key to modern warfare, Hegseth delivered an unsubtle message to his audience. “If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” the secretary said. Those words continue to resonate for a reason. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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