From New York Times, I'm Michael Bobarrow. This is the Daily.

During his decades-long path to becoming America's highest-ranking military officer,

General Charles Q. Brown won the crucial support of President Trump.

Until that was, Brown publicly talked about the one subject that is now taboo in Trump's government.

Today, Pentagon correspondent Helene Cooper on what got Brown fired and why it has so thoroughly rocked the military.

It's Thursday, February 27.

Well, Holian, thank you for coming into the studio, and thank you for making time for us.

Nice to be here, Michael.

Helene, can you tell us about what is being described as the Friday night massacre inside the Pentagon that unfolded a few days ago?

And why, even in the context of President Trump firing so many people across so

many federal agencies, this felt different and important and worth singling out, which is, of course,

what we're doing here in our conversation with you today. Well, on Friday night, President

Trump fired three very

senior Pentagon officials. One of those people is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

General Charles Q. Brown, known everywhere as C.Q. Brown, who is the highest ranking military

official in the country.

This was known as the Friday Night Massacre at the Pentagon

because it was so stunning for the simple reason that the American military is supposed to be apolitical.

Like the FBI, the military is supposed to stay in place, regardless of who the

president is. Some of the greatest generals in history made a point of the fact that they didn't

vote, like George Marshall. Even at one point, Ulysses S. Grant, back when he was a general

fighting the Civil War, didn't vote in 1864 for

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