{"id":141121,"date":"2026-07-30T17:59:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/pentagon-fires-back-after-mark-kelly-accuses-pete-hegseth-of-targeting-women-and-black-military-officers-141121"},"modified":"2026-07-30T17:59:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:59:04","slug":"pentagon-fires-back-after-mark-kelly-accuses-pete-hegseth-of-targeting-women-and-black-military-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/pentagon-fires-back-after-mark-kelly-accuses-pete-hegseth-of-targeting-women-and-black-military-officers-141121","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon fires back after Mark Kelly accuses Pete Hegseth of targeting women and Black military officers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Department of War (DoW) rejected Sen. Mark Kelly’s<\/a> allegations Thursday that War Secretary Pete Hegseth targeted women and Black military officers because of their identities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement to Fox News Digital<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said the department would not use a service member’s identity when making promotion decisions.<\/p>\n

“As we\u2019ve said before, military promotions are given to those who have earned them. The Department will never consider the color of a service member\u2019s 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<\/a> cited by the department to Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

SENATE REPUBLICAN PUSHES MERIT-BASED MILITARY PROMOTIONS, TARGETS BIDEN-ERA DEI POLICIES<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Kelly, a retired Navy captain and member of the Armed Services Committee, previously accused Hegseth of removing former Joint Chiefs of Staff<\/a> Chairman Gen. CQ Brown because of his race in an appearance Sunday<\/a> on MS NOW’s “PoliticsNation.” President Donald Trump fired Brown shortly after taking office again in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Arizona Democrat also pointed to the removal of Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as chief of naval operations<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

HEGSETH SAYS PENTAGON WILL REVIEW MARK KELLY’S PUBLIC STATEMENTS ABOUT CLASSIFIED BRIEFING AMID ONGOING FEUD<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“We\u2019re losing a generation of leaders, because there will be women and Black people that\u2019ll say, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t feel like I have opportunity here anymore. I\u2019m just going to leave mid-career instead of staying.\u2019 So, we\u2019ll lose some of our best people,” Kelly told Couric.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“Here\u2019s 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<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

AIR FORCE RESCINDING 135 PROMOTIONS AFTER TEST SCORING ERROR: ‘THIS IS GOING TO BE HARD’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Trump dismissed Brown in February 2025 and selected retired Air Force<\/a> Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to replace him. Hegseth separately requested<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Hegseth has maintained that promotions should be determined by performance<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

“Real toxic leadership is promoting people based on immutable characteristics or quotas instead of based on merit,” Hegseth said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source – https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/pentagon-fires-back-after-mark-kelly-accuses-pete-hegseth-targeting-women-black-military-officers <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_2902945987_2902945987":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[16563],"tags":[],"stock_ticker":[],"class_list":["post-141121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPentagon fires back after Mark Kelly accuses Pete Hegseth of targeting women and Black military officers - Wall Street PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/pentagon-fires-back-after-mark-kelly-accuses-pete-hegseth-of-targeting-women-and-black-military-officers-141121\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pentagon fires back after Mark Kelly accuses Pete Hegseth of targeting women and Black military officers - Wall Street PR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Department of War (DoW) rejected Sen. 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