Pentagon Denies Sen. Mark Kelly's Claim That Hegseth Targeted Women and Black Officers in Promotions

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., says Pete Hegseth is purging women and Black officers from senior military ranks. The Department of War says that's false, and that Kelly is making accusations with nothing behind them.

The fight went public this week when Kelly, a retired Navy captain and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sat down with Katie Couric on "Next Question." Kelly told Couric the department has "repeatedly" fired women and Black officers because of their gender and race, and that officials "don't even try to make excuses about it."

"We're losing a generation of leaders because there will be women and Black people that'll say, 'Well, I don't feel like I have opportunity here anymore. I'm just going to leave mid-career instead of staying,'" Kelly said. "So, we'll lose some of our best people."

Kelly had made a similar claim days earlier on MS NOW's "PoliticsNation," pointing to the removal of Gen. CQ Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Trump fired Brown shortly after taking office in January 2025. Kelly also cited the removal of Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as chief of naval operations, as evidence of a pattern.

The Department of War rejected the accusation outright. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Fox News Digital that promotions are decided strictly on performance.

"As we've said before, military promotions are given to those who have earned them," Parnell said. "The Department will never consider the color of a service member's skin or their gender as a factor in promotions. Under President Trump and @SecWar Hegseth, meritocracy reigns supreme at the War Department."

Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez echoed that line in a separate statement to Fox News Digital.

What's Actually Provable Here

Kelly's claim is an allegation, not a documented finding. He has not released personnel data, promotion board records, or a comparative analysis showing officers were removed or passed over specifically because of race or gender rather than performance, conduct, or policy disagreements. No inspector general report or congressional investigation has been announced to test the claim.

At the same time, the Pentagon's rebuttal is also just a statement. Parnell and Valdez are denying the allegation, not releasing the underlying promotion records or board deliberations that would let outside observers check the claim independently. Personnel and promotion decisions inside the military are not fully public, which means neither side's claim can be easily verified by reporters or the public in real time.

Kelly is pointing to a pattern of high-profile removals. Brown was the second Black officer to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, following Colin Powell, and Franchetti was the first woman to serve as chief of naval operations. Trump removed Brown days into his second term as part of a broader shakeup of Biden-era Pentagon leadership. Whether that timing reflects a targeted purge of diversity picks or simply a new administration replacing officials it viewed as misaligned with its priorities is a legitimate, unresolved question. Both readings are consistent with the public facts as reported.

The Pentagon's defenders would note that a new administration replacing top brass is not unusual, and that Biden-era promotion practices under his defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, were themselves criticized by Republicans, including Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., for weighing diversity considerations too heavily. Hegseth has moved to unwind DEI-related personnel policies since taking over, which supporters argue is a return to strict merit-based standards rather than a new form of discrimination.

Kelly's side would counter that removing back-to-back leaders who broke racial and gender barriers, without public performance-based justification, at minimum raises a fair question about motive that a simple denial doesn't answer.

Where This Goes Next

Neither side has produced hard evidence resolving the dispute. Kelly sits on the Armed Services Committee and could push for hearings or record requests on specific promotion boards. So far, no such formal request has been reported.

This is also not the first clash between the two men. Hegseth previously said the Pentagon would review Kelly's public statements about a classified briefing amid what Fox News Digital described as an "ongoing feud" between the senator and the secretary. That dispute remains unresolved as well, and no resolution date has been set for either disagreement.