Retired Major General Randy Manner, former Deputy Commanding General of the United States 3rd Army in Kuwait and Acting Vice Chief of the National Guard Bureau, spoke to Erin Burnett on CNN this week about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s plan, as reported by the Washington Post, to use random lie-detector tests on uniform and civilian officials in the U.S. military.
Manner warned that the practice could create the basis for false accusations. When asked to elaborate, Manner noted the firing of Inspectors General across the government and said: “Basically, what this means is you can no longer complain about people who might have corruption or are doing things that are illegal, but now we’re going to have people watching, literally, all of the people in the Defense Department.
“This appears to me to be an administration that is running scared and is trying to run, basically, trying to control the information around them.” Manner added that Hegseth “has tremendous anxiety.”
Major Gen. Randy Manner on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to reportedly use lie-detector tests on uniform and civilian officials: “The president talked about the enemy within. The enemy within is not in the military. The enemy within is not the American people.” pic.twitter.com/VW2ijTuFq2
— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) October 2, 2025
Manner referred to President Donald Trump’s remarks to the top U.S. military commanders gathered from across the world on Tuesday, and said: “The president talked about the enemy within. The enemy within is not in the military. The enemy within is not the American people.”
Manner referred to those in the audience as “heroes.” He said: “It’s important for the American people to understand that that group of senior officers and leaders are very well educated, all of them are combat veterans, they have in many cases had many soldiers in their command die in combat situations. Those are American heroes there, and they were being berated by a disgraced Major — that’s all that he ever got, as far as the Secretary of Defense, and a President who quite frankly dodged the draft.”
He added of the military brass gathered for Hegseth’s lecture: “They are the backbone of our nation’s security, they are apolitical and they’re going to stay apolitical.”