they want to hear. ana? let me ask you about a related development, barbara. the three navy s.e.a.l.s. pictured with officer eddy gallagher will not face the review board. tell us more about that. yeah, that s right. of course gallagher this is what really led to spencer being fired. very complicated. there was going to be a review board, an impartial military review board of all of those navy s.e.a.l.s. being able to keep their s.e.a.l. status upon retirement. the president intervened in the gallagher case over the objections of the navy secretary and said he would keep his try dent, his s. echt a.l. status no matter what. now because of all this controversy, the other s.e.a.l.s. are also not going to face a review board. the feeling inside the navy is this has become so controversial, be very tough for them to get an impartial review and the bottom line is the navy very much right now wants to move on. ana? barbara starr reporting at the pentagon, as we also
hearing? defense secretary mark es pechesper has just met with a small group of reporters to explain why the navy secretary was fired by him over the weekend. according to mark esper, the defense secretary, the navy secretary was engaged in back channel communications with the white house to try to basically assure while there might be a review of gallagher, he would get to keep, at the end of the day, his s.e.a.l. status, which was very important to him. and that s not what esper had been pushing for with the white house. esper had been pushing for letting the military justice system take its course. what s so striking here is spencer mentions none of this in his resignation letter, no mention that he was doing backchannel negotiations with the white house. esper says when he spoke to spencer over the weekend, he
i really think time to rip the band-aid off here. there has been a great deal of concern about all of this. these are cases that involve allegations of war crimes. now, does the president of the united states have the legal right as commander in chief to step in, intervene, and order people to be kept on their s.e.a.l. status, order them to have their rank restored in the other cases, order them pardon? of course he has the right as commander in chief. but what we keep hearing is just because he has the right to do it, should he do it? what is the implication for good order and discipline? the navy very much wanted to handle this on its own. they wanted to go through the standard review process. it s very well understood, very well known that frankly and we have seen it gallagher and others went to fox news.
talks in his forces resignation letter writing, i no longer share the same understanding with the commander in chief who appointed me. i cannot in good conscious obey an order that i believe violates the sacred oath i took. this is all about ego and retaliation and has nothing to do with good order and discipline. they could have taken my trident any time they wanted and now they re trying to take it after the president restored my rank. reporter: and now gallagher is expected to retire in a few days at the end of the month with the s.e.a.l. status in tact. secretary mark esper the pentagon chief wants everybody to move on but it remains to be seen how long the very bad feelings will linger. erica. barbara starr with the latest from the pentagon. thank you. joining me now gary peters of michigan, a former lieutenant commander in the u.s. navy reserve and now on the senate armed services committee. as you just heard barbara say, the defense secretary it is time