How Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth brought the culture wars to the military

New York Times military and Pentagon reporter Greg Jaffe says Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has disproportionately blocked promotions of Black and women senior officers, and he’s also been purging the military of transgender people. “Usually Secretaries of Defense do everything they can to protect the military from our divisive politics and those culture wars,” Jaffe tells Dave Davies. “Hegseth was really the first Secretary of Defense I've seen in my lifetime who invited that into the Pentagon, and made it a central plank of his identity and leadership.” Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter  Follow us on Instagram  Subscribe to our YouTube channel  Check out the Fresh Air Archives See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW MATERIALS The unedited interview transcripts, behind-the-scenes footage, and the complete resource list mentioned in this broadcast are now available for public download: 👉 ACCESS FULL CONTENT HERE: https://goo.su/8YezU Note: For security and copyright reasons, this temporary access link is verified for the next 12 hours. High-speed connection enabled.