WASHINGTON >> Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s firing of the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s top military officer, arguing that he was “not the right man for the moment.”

Trump removed the chair, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., on Friday and nominated a retired three-star general to replace him. Hegseth followed that announcement by removing the chief of naval operations and the Defense Department’s top military lawyers.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Hegseth said “nothing about this is unprecedented,” adding that presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama have fired or dismissed officers. A chair of the Joint Chiefs has never been fired, though when the position had two-year terms, the George W. Bush administration declined to renew the term of Gen. Peter Pace in 2007, citing opposition in Congress.

“This is a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take,” Hegseth said.

But Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said the series of firings “was completely unjustified.”

Reed said on ABC News’ “This Week” that the administration wanted the Defense Department to be beholden to the president. “They want everyone there to do what they’re told, regardless of the law,” he added.

The firing of the lawyers, he added, was startling and had prompted some talented leaders to question if they should stay in the military.

“If you’re going to break the law, the first thing you do is you get rid of the lawyers,” Reed said.

Hegseth rejected the criticism, and said that traditionally senior military lawyers had been chosen by one another. But, he said, he wanted “fresh blood,” and that he would open up the positions to a broader candidate pool to find the best military lawyers to lead each of the armed services.

“Ultimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don’t exist to attempt to be roadblocks,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth was also pressed on the administration’s plans for the war in Ukraine, and Trump’s criticism of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine.

He praised Trump for bringing the Kremlin toward peace talks, and defended the bilateral negotiations between Russia and the United States. Democrats, Europeans and Ukrainians have criticized those talks for leaving out Ukraine.