Why is Chuck Hagel stepping down?

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Now to a major shake up in the Obama administration, the resignation of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. The move comes as the U.S. expands in mission to go after the Islamic State group and just weeks after the president's disappointing midterm election results.

  CHUCK HAGEL, Secretary of Defense: It's been the greatest privilege of my life, the greatest privilege of my life to lead, and, most important, to serve, to serve with the men and women of the Defense Department, and support their families.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Hagel's announcement came amid widespread reports that he's leaving under pressure after 21 months on the job. Publicly, at least, President Obama offered only praise.

• PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

  When I nominated you for this position, you said that you would always give me your honest advice and informed counsel. You have. When it's mattered most, behind closed doors in the Oval Office, you have always given it to me straight. And, for that, I will always be grateful.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  The Vietnam War veteran had served as a Republican senator from Nebraska for 13 years, alongside then-Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Like the future president, Hagel was a critic of U.S. involvement in Iraq and became an Obama friend and supporter.

  But that stance put him at odds with fellow Republicans, as evident in his rocky Senate confirmation hearing in January 2013. At one point, Arizona Senator John McCain challenged the nominee on whether he was wrong to oppose the 2007 surge of U.S. troops into Iraq.

• CHUCK HAGEL:

  Well, I'm not going to give you a yes or no. I think it's far more complicated than that. As I have already said, my answer is, I will defer that judgment to history.

  SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) Arizona: I think history has already made a judgment about the surge, sir, and you're on the wrong side of it.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Hagel eventually won confirmation, and faced a shifting list of tough challenges, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the ongoing civil war over his rule, and, more recently, the threat from Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

  Even winding down the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan took an unexpected turn this past weekend, with word that American forces will target the Taliban after all.

  Even so, Hagel today pointed to achievements.

• CHUCK HAGEL:

  I believe we have set not only this department, the Department of Defense, but the nation, on a stronger course toward security, stability and prosperity.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  For now, Hagel will remain in office until the president nominates and the Senate confirms a successor.

  For a closer look at what's behind the Hagel resignation, we get two views. Thomas Donnelly is the co-director of the Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. And P.J. Crowley is a distinguished fellow at George Washington University's Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication. He had a career as an Air Force officer and was an assistant secretary of state under President Obama.

  And we welcome you both back to the program.

  I think the president, Tom Donnelly, was one of the few people today to say that this decision was Chuck Hagel's, that it wasn't forced on him. What's your understanding of what happened?

• THOMAS DONNELLY, American Enterprise Institute:

  It's a little bit difficult to tell.

  It was by mutual agreement I think is probably the best way to think about it. But it doesn't really reflect a change of policy. It may reflect a change of personnel, but the president didn't announce his departure from past policy.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And what's your understanding, P.J. Crowley, of what happened here?

  P.J. CROWLEY, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs: I think that is fair.

  Obviously, Chuck Hagel offered his resignation, and the president accepted it. I think perhaps the administration is in a perhaps different position as it enters its last two years in office than it probably expected. And this president may have felt that there was something else that he will need over these coming years.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  But is there any question he was under pressure to resign, do you think?

• P.J. CROWLEY:

  Yes, I think, you know, you can make it clear that you would like to see a resignation. I…

• THOMAS DONNELLY:

  The term scapegoat has been making its way through the press today, and that's probably fair.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  There's a lot being written about this today all over the map about his relationship with the White House, Tom Donnelly, about how he got along at the Pentagon. What's your sense of how he was seen at the Pentagon?

• THOMAS DONNELLY:

  Well, I mean, the White House hold policy-making very closely. Actually, both his predecessors, Secretary Panetta and Secretary Gates, have expressed repeated frustrations at the inability to really influence policy.

  I could easily believe that Secretary Hagel came to the same sorts of frustrations and decided it wasn't worth it anymore.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  How do you see…

• P.J. CROWLEY:

  Well, I think you have to look what perhaps changed over the past six months that moved us to this situation.

  There is a change in the political climate. Chuck Hagel is a very self-effacing guy. And so I think the president may feel he needs a more vigorous voice publicly to defend administration policy over the next two years. And also you do have the challenge in Iraq and Syria.

  And perhaps the president is looking for — understand and clarify the strategic underpinnings of this strategy, perhaps better options over time. We will probably know a little hint of that when we see who his successor may be.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And in connection with that, one of the things we're reading today, Tom Donnelly, is that one of the things the president and others around him were looking for was someone to articulate a strategy, whether it had to do with the Islamic State, whether it was how to deal with Syria, and they weren't getting that from him.

• THOMAS DONNELLY:

  But the underlying problem will still remain. The secretary of defense will still have to articulate policy decisions made by a very a small circle in the White House.

  Whether it's a happier face or more convincing presentation of that, maybe that's possible, but you will still have to sell the same message.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And meaning what? Meaning what?

• THOMAS DONNELLY:

  Well, it means that the war policy is going to be limited to do the minimum amount possible. The defense budget — approach to the defense budget is not going to change. The White House is sort of happy with the way things are.

  So whoever follows Secretary Hagel's position, who has the job, will still have the same task at hand to try to carry out.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  So, P.J. Crowley, we don't look for a significant policy change or tweaking with the new defense…

• P.J. CROWLEY:

  I don't think — I agree with Tom. I don't think this was about disagreements with policy or strategy.

  But I think we also should be — we should recognize that this is a very, very tough job. I mean, if you serve four or five years as a secretary of defense, it's the largest enterprise in the world. Getting your arms around a building that is always pulling in different directions is hard. This is not a challenge that the average human being, you know, can necessarily do.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  But it is a little bit of a contradiction, because, as we heard in that report, this is someone close to the president, who came in having this somewhat longstanding relationship with the president, going back to their days in the Senate together. And then not to be able to work with the White House, explain that.

• THOMAS DONNELLY:

  It's a tough task, but a particularly tough job now, to preside over a Pentagon that is being drawn down, is being cut in kind of every way imaginable, yet the demand in the world for American military power is the same or going up.

  Nobody anticipated the ISIS war when Chuck Hagel came into office, and so it's naturally frustrating. He just doesn't have the resources to do what he's being asked to do.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  What are you looking — what are you hearing? What is your sense, P.J. Crowley, or who some successor names may be?

• P.J. CROWLEY:

  Well, I think the administration is a pretty tightly bound group. I think you look first at those who have already served in the administration and can work within the inner circle that the White House has.

  Ash Carter was the deputy secretary of defense, Michele Flournoy, the undersecretary for policy. I think particularly if he's looking for someone to develop a strategy around what has been a pretty reactive policy in Syria so far, that's something to look at. That's where I would place my bets.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Not an outside name, in other words?

• THOMAS DONNELLY:

  No. And it's hard to see any of the likely successors being the one really changes the policy picture or becomes a more convincing representative of administration policy.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  But — and there's — something was made today of the fact that this is the president's — this is the president's final quarter of his time in office, final two years, that he wants this person to be the person who stays there until the end of the term.

• THOMAS DONNELLY:

  I think he would have liked to have Secretary Hagel serve out the full four years, as the secretary himself anticipated, but it's a tough job.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Well, that's certainly what's coming across today.

  Tom Donnelly, we thank you.

  P.J. Crowley, thank you.

• P.J. CROWLEY:

  Thanks, Judy.

• THOMAS DONNELLY:

  Pleasure.