Tag: Robert Gates

Former Defense Secretary Gates Says President Obama “Double Crossed” Him

| April 4, 2016

This was something I was surprised to read about over the weekend.  Usually former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pretty measured with his words, but he had some pretty strong things to say about President Obama:

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he felt President Obama “double-crossed” him during his tenure over budget cuts to the Pentagon.

In a Fox News report Friday that explored the president’s approach to the military, Gates said Obama had promised him that there wouldn’t be any “significant changes” in the defense budget for a while.

When asked by Fox whether Obama kept to his word, Gates replied, “Well I think that began to fray. ‘Fray’ may be too gentle a word.”

According to the report, Gates was told to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from the defense budget after already having slashed it.

“I guess I’d have to say I felt double-crossed,” Gates said. “After all those years in Washington, I was naïve.”

The former defense secretary added that he advised Obama to slow the cuts to the military because it would endanger U.S. troops.

“I think he acknowledged that what I was pitching at a minimum was, ‘The world doesn’t seem to be getting better. Before you head down a path of deep cuts in defense, why don’t you take it kind of slow,’ ” he said. “You know it was one of those things where I lost the argument.”  [The Hill]

You can read more at the link.