Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona told CBS Face the Nation that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lacks the skill needed for the job.

Kelly said Hegseth removes officers over race or gender while favoring loyalty, pointing to seven people blocked from one-star to two-star promotion of whom five were Black or female. He named the unexplained dismissal of Air Force Chief of Staff CQ Brown, a highly experienced four-star aviator, along with Navy Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti and the female Coast Guard commandant, calling the pattern a threat to readiness that leaves Americans less secure.

Kelly rejected Hegseth’s reports of met recruiting goals and falling sexual-assault numbers, saying Hegseth instead stresses lethality and looser engagement rules whose results appear in Iran. He said the Iran campaign, which struck more than 15,000 targets and used up munitions, failed because Hegseth follows the president without resistance, producing an unplanned war never explained to the public.