Senior officials of the Obama administration announced today that the U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will step down.
He is expected to appear in a press conference with the President this morning to confirm the resignation.
The White House official stated that Hagel’s resignation is nothing out-of-ordinary and the shuffle of a cabinet is a common place after midterm elections. The unnamed official also said Hagel “was not up to the job.” The Secretary of Defense is reportedly resigning under pressure from the administration for not handling the major global threats properly. That includes Pentagon’s response to the threats from ISIS and Ebola crisis.
Hagel replaced Leon Panetta as defense secretary in President Obama’s second term in February 2013. Before that he served as the Republican Senator from his home state of Nebraska from 1997 to 2009.
Hagel was the only Republican member of the president’s cabinet. He will remain in his position until the new candidate for the post is announced and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
