Biden-era Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall minced no words when asked what he would do if he were still in the role today.
“I couldn’t serve this administration,” he told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz on Sunday’s broadcast of “This Week.”
The declaration followed Kendall’s fierce rebuke of the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“I’ve always been incredibly impressed with the apolitical professionalism of our military,” said Kendall. “Different parties come in, people just continue to do their jobs, they support whatever the policies are of the current party in power.”
But, he qualified, “I’ve never seen an attempt to politicize our military like the one being conducted by Pete Hegseth.”
“It’s causing people to be afraid,” he continued, warning that “long-term serious damage is being done to our military.”
Kendall argued there is “an obligation on our officers, particularly our senior officers who interact directly with the senior political leadership, to tell them the truth and to stand up to them when they want to do something which is morally wrong, unethical or illegal.”
And “they’re not doing that,” he lamented.
Kendall’s points echoed those made in his opinion piece last week for The New York Times and to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, when he alleged that Hegseth is doing “active harm” to the department.
“We may have two and a half more years of this,” he told Collins. “That’s a long time. Four years of this type of management is incredibly debilitating and destructive.”