The Department of War (DoW) rejected Sen. Mark Kelly’s allegations Thursday that War Secretary Pete Hegseth targeted women and Black military officers because of their identities.
In a statement to Fox News Digital responding to Kelly’s interview on “Next Question with Katie Couric,” the department pointed to statements from two Pentagon spokesmen maintaining that military promotions were based on merit, not race and gender.
Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said the department would not use a service member’s identity when making promotion decisions.
“As we’ve said before, military promotions are given to those who have earned them. The Department will never consider the color of a service member’s skin or their gender as a factor in promotions. Under President Trump and @SecWar Hegseth, meritocracy reigns supreme at the War Department,” Parnell said in one of the statements cited by the department to Fox News Digital.
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“They also fire women and they fire Black people because of their gender and the color of their skin,” he told Couric. “They’ve done that repeatedly. They don’t even try to make excuses about it. They just fire them.”
Kelly, a retired Navy captain and member of the Armed Services Committee, previously accused Hegseth of removing former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. CQ Brown because of his race in an appearance Sunday on MS NOW’s “PoliticsNation.” President Donald Trump fired Brown shortly after taking office again in 2025.
The Arizona Democrat also pointed to the removal of Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as chief of naval operations, as he accused Hegseth of blocking promotions and removing officers because of their race or gender. Kelly said the personnel changes would deprive the military of experienced leaders.
“We’re losing a generation of leaders, because there will be women and Black people that’ll say, ‘Well, I don’t feel like I have opportunity here anymore. I’m just going to leave mid-career instead of staying.’ So, we’ll lose some of our best people,” Kelly told Couric.
Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez also rejected the premise that the department’s personnel decisions were discriminatory. The DoW directed Fox News Digital to his statement as part of its response to Kelly’s allegations.
“Here’s the bottom line: anyone who has an issue with merit-based promotions should reconsider their values. Promotions based solely on race and gender is wrong,” Valdez said on X last month.
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Trump dismissed Brown in February 2025 and selected retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to replace him. Hegseth separately requested nominees to replace Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chair of Staff Gen. Jim Slide and the judge advocate general of the Army, Navy and Air Force during a broader Pentagon leadership shake-up.
Military officials questioned whether women and minority officers had been singled out because of their identities, an allegation Pentagon officials strongly disputed. The department did not publicly disclose its specific rationale for the removals.
Hegseth has maintained that promotions should be determined by performance rather than identity. During a September address to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, he described identity-based advancement as a form of poor leadership.
“Real toxic leadership is promoting people based on immutable characteristics or quotas instead of based on merit,” Hegseth said.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report.
