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Ret. Army General Jack Keane speaks about President BidenTrump’s request for members of military academy advisory boards to submit their resignations on Wednesday.
The move has been criticized as political, given that previous presidents did not call for the resignation of military academy board members from previous administrations.
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“He fired us because we were appointed by President Trump,” a retired four-star general and president of the Institute for the Study of War who served on the West Point advisory board told Fox News. “There has been no assessment of who we are, our contributions and our track record.… I think it’s petty, very partisan and just plain wrong.”
The former army chief of staff was appointed to the West Point board in 2019 by former President Trump. He described the task as being part of a university board of trustees and “overseeing the functions of the academy and reporting to the president as such”.
U.S. President Donald Trump presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to retired General Jack Keane, Chairman of AM General Holdings LLC, right, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, the United States, on Tuesday March 10, 2020. Photographer: AL Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Keane and other Trump appointees joined former President Obama appointees, and each of them brought different skills and ideas, Keane explained.
“We never saw ourselves as political candidates, to be frank,” he said. “We are honored to be part of the Board of Visitors to help one of America’s most esteemed and beloved institutions whose history is almost synonymous with the history of the United States.”
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He continued, “So being dismissed just because we were appointed by Trump by the Biden administration violates the tradition of the Visitors’ Council. President Trump did not eliminate any of the Obama nominees when he entered. He just let them serve their terms. Then he appointed the people he wanted to the board to replace them, but he didn’t fire anyone else. “
Keane added that many of Trump’s appointees had “diverse backgrounds that could help the military academy” and noted that he oversaw West Point when he was a four-star general at the Pentagon for four and a half years despite being he is not a graduate. of the prestigious academy.
Acting Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. John M. Keane speaks during the Army Birthday Celebration in the Pentagon Central Yard June 13, 2003 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Stefan Zaklin / Getty Images)
“After 38 years in the military, I think I have some understanding of what’s needed in terms of officers coming out of West Point and the kind of program they should be exposed to and the kind of norms and values and character development they should experience, ”he said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that steps had been taken “to ensure [the president] has candidates and people serving on those boards who are qualified to serve on them and who are aligned with [his] values.”
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Psaki also denied that the measures were politically motivated, saying instead that “the president’s qualification requirements are not your party registration, they are whether you are qualified to serve and whether you are aligned with the values. of this administration “.
Other fired West Point officials include former Trump national security adviser HR McMaster, former adviser to President Kellyanne Conway, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, former senior adviser to the Pentagon Douglas Macgregor, former U.S. Army North Commander Guy Swan III and West Point graduate. David Urbain.
Michael Lee of Fox News contributed to this report.
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