Hegseth’s Army Purge, and Polling Chaos in the Midterms

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**Tracy Mumford** (0:32)
From the New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Wednesday, August 26th. Here's what we're covering.
At the Pentagon, my colleagues have learned that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's months long purge of senior leadership has left the Army, the military's largest service, effectively rudderless.
Earlier this year, Hegseth abruptly fired General Randy George, the Army Chief of Staff, its top officer, in a 15-second phone call with no explanation, according to Defense officials. George was responsible for training and equipping Army units around the world, and four months after his firing, there are still no signs that his position is close to being filled. Instead, Hegseth has forced out at least three other senior officers who had been seen as potential successors. At the same time, officials say that the Army Secretary, its top civilian leader, is barely on speaking terms with Hegseth, and is expected to leave his post in the next few months. Overall, the Army now has fewer four-star generals serving than it has in decades. They're some of the most combat-hardened, experienced leaders, and there are currently just five, down from ten, when Hegseth took office. Army officials tell the Times that Hegseth arrived at the Pentagon with deep suspicions of its senior leadership, based on his own experience in the military. Hegseth deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, but was forced to leave the National Guard for tattoos that were deemed extremist. He wrote in a recent book that, quote, the military I loved, I fought for, I revered, spit me out.

**Greg Jaffe** (2:21)
The overwhelming theme with almost all of these dismissals is that there's no real clear reason given, and often the people who are fired don't know why they've been fired.

**Tracy Mumford** (2:30)
Greg Jaffe covers the Pentagon for the Times. He says that there is growing concern in the army that the wave of abrupt firings could send a message that there's no place for officers who don't align with the administration's ideology, even though the military is supposed to be non-partisan.
At the same time, Greg says there are also concerns that the leadership vacuum could affect the army's readiness on the battlefield.

**Greg Jaffe** (2:54)
The army's got a couple of really important jobs right now. One is to protect troops in the Middle East from Iranian missile strikes. Iranian missile strikes are becoming increasingly sophisticated. And so, you know, you want leadership focused, the top leadership focused, on how do you adjust to the new Iranian tactics. If you're using maneuverable missiles and things like that, then in some cases have been able to overwhelm US air defense systems. So you want a full contingent of senior officers who are making sure that we're looking at every option there. The other concern is the longer term concern, which is you want to have a bench of good leaders going forward. And the worry is that that bench of leadership and experience, particularly combat experience, is really being thinned out.

**Tracy Mumford** (3:39)
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Army downplayed the impact of the firings and said that, quote, Our global readiness is never compromised. Last night, results came in for some of the final primaries of the season, walking in matchups for the midterms.

**Darlene Graham** (4:00)
What a night. What a night.

**Tracy Mumford** (4:03)
One of the most notable was in South Carolina, where Darlene Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, won her primary. She has no political experience, but President Trump pushed hard for her to officially take up her brother's seat, which she's been filling temporarily.

**Darlene Graham** (4:20)
Tonight is a great victory, but it's not the finish line. In fact, it is the starting line for an even bigger fight, which lies ahead.

**Tracy Mumford** (4:30)
As things now shift from primaries into a focus on election day, Democrats and Republicans are vying for control of Congress in what polls show could come down to a series of increasingly tight races. But one thing that's been clouding the picture this year is how messy and even chaotic some polling data has been.

**Reid Epstein** (4:51)
You know, we've seen some polling that is wildly off base and not close to what the result eventually turned out to be.