Per the New York Times, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will be resigning from his post today, but will be staying in office until his replacement is confirmed.
While one administration official insists he was not "fired," per se, another says that President Obama asked him to step down from his post.
From the New York Times:
The president, who is expected to announce Mr. Hagel’s resignation in a Rose Garden appearance on Monday, made the decision to ask his defense secretary — the sole Republican on his national security team — to step down last Friday after a series of meetings over the past two weeks, senior administration officials said.
The officials described Mr. Obama’s decision to remove Mr. Hagel, 68, as a recognition that the threat from the Islamic State would require a different kind of skills than those that Mr. Hagel was brought on to employ. A Republican with military experience who was skeptical about the Iraq war, Mr. Hagel came in to manage the Afghanistan combat withdrawal and the shrinking Pentagon budget in the era of budget sequestration.
Hagel served as Secretary of Defense for less than two years.
Some names being thrown around as a potential replacement for Hagel include Michèle Flournoy, the former under secretary of defense, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), and Ashton B. Carter, former deputy secretary of defense.
A press conference will be held at 11 a.m. to elaborate further on Hagel's resignation.
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