One member of Congress has called for the resignation of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, saying Mabus’ criticism of a Marine Corps report on gender integration proved he is too biased to continue to lead the service.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said the secretary should find a new leader of the Navy who “will not be compromised by politics.”
“He has openly disrespected the Marine Corps as an institution, and he insulted the competency of Marines by disregarding their professional judgment, their combat experience and their quality of leadership,” Hunter wrote in the letter, Navy Times reported. “Such a significant loss of respect is detrimental to the ability of the Navy Secretary to effectively lead the men and women of the Marine Corps.”
The letter comes as the Marine Corps prepares to announce that it will recommend keeping certain jobs closed to women, the Associated Press reported Friday.
Mabus drew criticism from members of Congress as well as active-duty troops this week for saying he would not recommend the Marines keep any positions closed to women, despite a recent Marine Corps study that found gender-integrated combat teams performed worse at almost every test than their male counterparts.
“I’m not going to ask for an exemption for the Marines, and it’s not going to make them any less fighting effective,” Mabus said during a speech at the City Club of Cleveland on Monday. “In fact, I think they will be a stronger force because a more diverse force is a stronger force.”
He suggested that the female Marines who participated in the nine-month study may not have been the best the service could offer.
A spokesman for Mabus said he was aware of the letter but declined to comment.
Recommendations from service secretaries are due to Carter by Oct. 1 on which, if any, jobs they would like to keep closed to women. Carter will make a final decision by Jan. 1 on whether to open positions in communities such as special operations and the infantry.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters that while formal recommendations would come from service secretaries, Carter will receive input from other service leaders, so top Marines will have a chance to voice any opinion that differs from Mabus.
At the very least, Hunter said Carter should take Mabus out of the decision-making process since he proved he is incapable of being unbiased, making his comments before he was even briefed on the 900-page report.
“That alone underscores the fact that the Navy secretary is biased in his judgment and should be withdrawn from any decision-making that occurs with respect to the Marine Corps’ gender integration plan,” wroter Hunter, a former Marine officer who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. “The Navy secretary has provided you sufficient cause to remove him from the process.”
