By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s administration and said it was harming national security, after Reuters reported the firing of U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, who held a senior position in NATO.
Reuters first reported on Monday that Chatfield, the U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee and one of only a handful of female Navy three-star officers, had been fired.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had removed Chatfield “due to a loss of confidence in her ability to lead.”
But Democratic lawmakers said there was no justifiable reason for her removal.
U.S. Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Chatfield was fired for “clearly political reasons.”
“Will Republican senators ever find a voice to stand up for our national security or is this purge going to be able to continue without any consequences,” Warner said in a video on X.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said the Trump administration was harming national security.
“Secretary Hegseth has once again made Americans less safe in pursuit of his political ideology. Vice Admiral Chatfield is extraordinarily well-qualified and there is no reasonable justification for her removal,” Gillibrand said in a statement.
Chatfield was the first woman to lead the Naval War College, a job she held until 2023.
The firing is the latest to rock the Pentagon after Thursday’s removal of General Timothy Haugh, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. For the Navy, it follows the firing of its top officer, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to become Chief of Naval Operations.
One source had told Reuters that the motive for Chatfield’s removal may have been related to the Pentagon’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Hegseth has made the elimination of DEI initiatives a priority, arguing they are divisive.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington and Phil Stewart in Panama City; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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