VIDEO AND PHOTO SOURCE?|?FORBES BREAKING NEWS?|?JANUARY 11, 2024
TRANSCRIPT:
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order like to welcome everybody who’s here without objection the chair May declare a recess at any time and without
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objection we are honored to have the representative Waltz of Florida wave on to this subcommittee he’s got a lot of
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military experience for the purpose of questioning the witnesses at today’s subcommittee hearing I recognize myself
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for the purpose of making an opening statement good morning I want to welcome everyone to this hearing before the
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subcommittee on National Security of the border and Foreign Affairs today’s hearing is the risk of progressive
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ideologies in the US military I want to Express gratitude for our Witnesses for being here it’s my sincere hope that
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this hearing provides a platform for constructive Dialogue on the issues that face today’s military the questions we
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intend to address today are not about not just about readiness or the military’s Personnel system but how
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ideological concerns and debates within Civil Society are imported into and impact the military’s ability to recruit
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train and op especially operate effectively in a dynamic threat environment the term wokeness has become
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a topic of discussion both within and outside military circles is prompting us to scrutinize how ideological shifts may
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impact the Readiness and effectiveness of the Armed Forces as well as uh how
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our military is affected once they begin to adapt this kind of woke
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ideology our military is grappling with the Biden administration’s social experiments of integrating principles of
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diversity equity and inclusion or what’s referred to as Dei into their ranks the
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Pentagon often failed to recognize the financial burden these priorities place on taxpayers Dei managers are making
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over $180,000 a year which in my mind sends a message in its own right in fact
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the Department of Defense recently requested 114 million for diversity and inclusion initiatives as part of the
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president’s fiscal 2024 budget request unbelievable uh to be clear acknowledge
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in the various experiences of our service members may have the potential to enhance our overall strength and
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resilience as a nation and fighting force at the end of the day our differences must yield to what we have
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in common a duty to protect the American freedoms we hold dear uh I have concerns
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about how the Dei bureaucracy implements its framework within the military not to mention I think the Dei framework is not
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something that is even necessarily true uh I think it divide unnecessarily divides people instead building up
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uniform um building up cohesion uh it is the potential to harm unic cohesion and
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under minor sailor Effectiveness between this and our secretary of defense being incapacitated for several days and not
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telling anyone shows a concern about the seriousness with which the Biden
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Administration uh leads our Armed Forces we need to understand the influence of progressive ideologies on military
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policy and whether whether p Progressive ideologies are even true we need to
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understand the extent to which ideological considerations are shaping decision-making processes our armed
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services have long been a Bastion of meritocracy whereas individuals uh where
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individuals are promoted based on their skills competence and dedication to duty it’s crucial that we examine whether the
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emphasis on an ideological framework is affecting the core principles of a merit-based
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military furthermore I think it’s important important to examine
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uh whether this Dei ideology is uh even factually true or whether it just serves
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to divide Americans in today’s hearing we aim to understand the implications of
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these ideological shifts on Military Readiness and Effectiveness our witnesses will provide insight into how
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these ideologies May influence training operational procedures and overall
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cohesiveness of our military units this hearing is an examination of our ideological
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considerations uh even well-intentioned ones erode the fundamental principles that have historically defined our
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military and ensure uni cohesion and force Readiness I think throughout our
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history our military understand that we are fighting for I think the greatest country in the world and I think all of
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our Soldiers and Sailors ought to understand that our focus is to ensure
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that our military remains a beacon of Excellence while adapting to evolving needs of our nation and threats we Face
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from our adversaries it’s about leveraging the full spectrum of talent within our nation for the cohesive strength of
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armed services thank you again for appearing here today and I look forward to the discussions that will unfold in
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today’s hearing I now recognize ranking member Garcia for the purpose of making his opening
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stable thank you Mr chairman and I I’ll just be honest I am a a bit uh dismayed
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and disappointed to be here at this hearing today uh back in March we held a hearing called ensuring Force Readiness
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examining progressivism’s impact on an all volunteer military and back then in March I was dismayed that the majority
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chose to ignore what I believe were the root causes and challenges we’re facing to Recruitment and Retention in our
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armed services such as the need for improved mental health support for our service members the continued need to
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implement the IM Vanessa Gan Act and the need to crack down on sexual violence the need for Reliable and affordable CH
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child care for our war fighters who are deployed on a moment’s notice and so much more especially when our economy is
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creating record numbers of jobs in the private sector and our military has to compete for top talent now data and
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evidence show that sexual assault Mental Health Care affordable child care are all real factors that affect military
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recruitment retention and Readiness uh during that hearing uh many of us stressed that to recruit from the most
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that that to recruit from the most diverse generation in history we also need a military that looks like America
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we need a cohesive military which does not allow bigotry within its ranks but the hearing also found that attacks on
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military leaders and family hardships may be significant factors in dissuading otherwise motivated young people from
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pursuing military careers and of course depriving our country of incredible Talent the idea that quote wokeness is a
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top national security threat did not make any sense then and does not make any sense today and it makes even less
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sense now given the world that we face now I believe that over emphasis on this farri talking point is what inspired
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Senator Tommy tu Ville to launch his unprecedented blockade of military officer promotions now Senator tville
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intentionally blocked more than 400 General and flag officers within the dod from Senate confirmation and promotion
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even more Junior officers lost the opportunity to rise in rank with massive impacts on factors such as retention pay
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pension and future opportunities the stunt did Far Far More to underminer military Readiness than
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anything else and so I asked unanimous consent to enter to enter into the record once again the letter I sent uh
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calling for a hearing on National Security implications of of the Senator’s blockade of military promotions into the
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record thank you sir and now I can’t really understand why we’re also holding a second hearing on this topic when we
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could be working on in a bipartisan way to address real challenges to our national security and Mr chairman I want
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to thank you for our bipartisan work on our UAP disclosure bill and I think that’s a the kind of bipartisan effort
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that we should be working on today we should also be talking about our real National Security threats our allies in
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Ukraine need immediate aid we need to support Taiwan and provide Aid of course in the Middle East now we could hold
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hearings that use data and evidence to demonstrate that Americans a Aid boosts our national security at minimal cost
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and highlight how our Aid safeguards democracy and freedom against brutal aggressions we could even show how
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Ukraine Aid directly benefits communities all across our country who benefit from investment and jobs and
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drive how these investments will uphold on National Security in in the long term but instead we’re holding Ukraine
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another crucial foreign aid hostage instead many are debating that we bring back indefinite detention for children
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at the border defund Catholic Charities and end the right to Asylum linking that to an aid that impacts our national
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security some also appear to be using Putin’s talking points that want to sell out our allies and partners there’s
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obstruction of course around issues around the Border saying that we don’t want bipartisan border security actions
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and one of our Congressional colleagues even said the quiet part out loud and I’ll quote let me tell you I’m not
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willing to do a damn thing right now to help a Democrat or to help Joe Biden’s approval ratings that’s not the type of
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bipartisan work that we need on this issue and yet here we are investigating wokeness now it’s not wokeness that it’s
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threatening our national security whatever that word actually means the real threat to our security is a
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far-right extreme obstruction of dysfunction and culture War stunts this
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hearing is disappointing but I look forward to working with our chairman and hope there can be bipartisan Solutions I
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yield back I’m pleased to introduce our Witnesses today our first witness is
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Will TBO director of the American Military project at the wonderful Claremont Institute where he works on
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analyzing the institutional Integrity of the US military he also has experience serving in Iraq in the 75th Ranger
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regimen as a platoon leader and county executive officer company executive officer next witness is mad Matt L
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former US fighter pilot and former Commander with the US space force he’s also a bestselling author and consultant
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on defense related issues our Final witness is Tai Saudi a retired US Army
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Brigadier General and professor of history at the US Military Academy he’s also a visiting professor at the
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Hamilton College and in 2021 Secretary of Defense Lloyd auson appointed him to
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the National Commission on base renaming I welcome each of you here today and look forward to your testimony pursuant
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to committee rule 9g the wi we have the witnesses uh please stand and raise your
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right hand do you solemnly swear or affirm
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that the testimony you’re about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you
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God let the record show all the witnesses answered in the affirmative thank you and may take your seat we
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appreciate your being here today and look forward to your testimony let remind the witnesses that we have read your written statements and will appear
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in full on the hearing record please limit your oral statement to 5 minutes as a reminder please press the button on
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the microphone in front of you so that when it is on the members can hear you when you begin to speak the light in
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front of you will turn green after four minutes the light will turn yellow which means you have one minute left when the red light comes on your five minutes
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have expired and we ask you to wrap up as quickly as possible I now recognize Mr TBO for your opening
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statement good morning uh chairman grothman ranking member Garcia my fellow uh members of the sub subcommittee and
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my fellow panelists it’s my contention that the military must only consider factors of personnel programs and policy
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that genuinely better the Armed Forces ability to fight and win our nation’s Wars Merit must not be the first
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consideration for this analysis but the exclusive lens through which elected officials and military leaders make
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these kinds of decisions diversity is an ideology that exists in our social moras is something
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that the military must Embrace as a point of fact as a principle as opposed
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to just a byproduct of selecting the best people for the job it’s as if the Armed Forces marched
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to the beat of a corporate or university drum in reality though the existence of a professional permanent standing
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military demands that the institution exist apart from ideologies and politics
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prevalent in MO modern day America regardless of their political affiliation and therefore the military
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must balance functional considerations again those capabilities required to fight and win Wars with social
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considerations or those political and ideological realities which Define American life for the rest of us
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increasingly though objective military professionalism is now seen as one factor among many that allow leaders to
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quote comprehensively evaluate a person system or policy this of course being a
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euphemism for an eight characterist istics like race or sex this programmatic of consideration PR
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programmatic consideration of these innate characteristics is toxic because it redefines the concept of merit-based
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Standards when diversity goals exist for military units or the service acmy standards become minimum expectations to
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meet before fully evaluating other parts of a participant’s career or life
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standards are no longer how the military selects the best based on an order of Merit list but just how you get in the
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door the mere factor of political considerations outside military
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competence demands that human characteristics one does not choose about thems become critical filters for
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military decisions consideration for diversity is one mark of the blend that uh the old
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historian Samuel Huntington’s military mind uh made with the Hallmarks of a society that are built around different
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ideals than that which makes the military successful despite the Army’s current recruiting uh slogan the
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military is not a place where you can be all you can be instead it should be a time of service and a career for our
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nation where one gives all there is to give no matter the cost our military is filled with men and women who live by
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this principle but our policies and slogans should reflect this ethic of service at stake though is much more
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than the relative quality of military units the Integrity of our Republic is in tension with a military that
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evaluates matters of politics and identity when stand standards become minimum
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expectations they are not markers of achievement to select the best in other sectors of society the consequences of
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shering the the exclusivity of Merit amount to a bad hire in the finance
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department or or the wrong University president maybe a Miss Revenue Pro projection that last fiscal quarter but
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the military is and should be different history is littered with examples of militaries whose consideration of
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political ideology precipitated a collapse in mil milary professionalism led to defeats on the battlefield and
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all of which served as a precursor to the collapse of those Nations America should not wait to find out if we can
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outrun the drum beat of such history thank you for the opportunity to testify and I look forward to the
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conversation thank you Mr L good morning my name is Matt L and I’m
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an Air Force Academy graduate former f-15c fighter pilot and was lieutenant colonel and Commander in the space force
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in 2021 I was fired from my command for writing a book trying to reverse the trend of the overt politicization of the
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uniform services specifically I criticized the military’s diversity equity and inclusion trainings which at my own base
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were illegally occurring despite an executive order from the commander-in-chief the diversity equity
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and inclusion industry is steeped in critical race Theory and is rooted in anti-American Marxist
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ideology I watch Dei training divide our troops ideologically and in some cases
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sew the seeds of animosity toward the very country they had sworn an oath to defend before writing that book I
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submitted a formal written complaint to the space force inspector General’s office detailing that such violations
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were occurring including illegal race-based discrimination but my complaint was never investigated and was later
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dismissed by then Lieutenant General Steven whiiing whom the Senate just confirmed for his fourth star after two
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months I received received a written dismissal of my complaint from General Whiting personally I have always
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advocated for a non-political military work environment today I’m here to testify
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about the ongoing Marxist inspired efforts to subvert and weaken our military and broader American society we
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often refer to these efforts as wokeism but it is also a culture War yet even in this committee there are differing views
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about whether there is such a thing as a culture War underway some members of this committee
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have been outspoken critics of Dei initiatives to include CRT drag shows on Military basis transactivism lgbtq Pride
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celebrations and woke military recruiting videos all things that are visible components of an ongoing culture
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War ranking member Garcia as he just mentioned on the other hand and asserted
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as recently as two weeks ago says that the culture wars are quote unquote phony and are merely a political
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talking point of Republicans it’s nothing if not incredible for a member of this subcommittee to assert that culture wars
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are phony while another member who’s not present at the moment of this committee as a member of the so-called Progressive
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Squad was herself a black lives matter organizer and activist an organization whose publicly AOW ideology is
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Marxism and whose activist ambition is social and Cultural Revolution service members who wear the
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uniform of their country do not want to see these things in the military workplace
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they don’t want to see them at their bases in most cases this is true regardless of their race or their political
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worldview despite that reality Pentagon officials requested $140 million to
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expand woke diversity initiatives in fiscal year 2024 double what it’s been the previous two years there are few
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things taxpayers such as myself feel less essential to the mission of the United States military than expanding
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diversity mandates and indoctrination and now an important point such aggressively opposed
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ideological worldviews competing for institutionalization through
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policy epitomizes and formalizes what is properly termed a culture
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War the fact that these debates now infect the US military workplace is an offense to people like me who love their
18:18country and all people regardless of the race gender sexual preference or background I’d like to briefly draw
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attention to two of a handful of exhibits I have submitted for the commit review and for entry into the official
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record of today’s hearing the first is a 100 page document which includes real
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world unsolicited feedback from military service members I submit it for the record because to spend even a few
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minutes with the document is to get a sense for how Dei trainings are hurting morale dividing and distracting troops
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disincentivizing Americans from service and thereby destroying our recruiting and retention efforts the second is a
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letter signed by 185 retired General and flag officers previously sent to to leaders in the house which they did in
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fact receive despite their warning about dei’s divisive impacts in the military workplace and their request for Congress
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to end funding for all such initiatives the Congress ultimately did not use its power to put an end to Dei funding in
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the recently approved ndaa thank you to those of you by the way who tried to introduce useful legislation the men and
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women who sent that letter raised the warning voice and tried their best to respectfully influence our nation’s lawmakers I said in my book back in 2021
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that if we did not abandon the diversity and inclusion trainings then we would see an unprecedented
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recruitment then we would see unprecedented Recruitment and Retention wos that has been true and we have seen
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as a nation that it is not getting any better hence the need for a hearing like this I also said that unless we abandon
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our present hate-filled and divisive path and repent as a nation we will destroy ourselves and I reaffirm that
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view here today and I’m grateful to answer any questions that this subcommittee may have for me thank you
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uh chairman grothman and ranking ranking member Garcia and committee members thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee I served in the US Army
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for 36 years my wife is an Air Force brat daughter of a fighter pilot during our career she supported families in
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peace and War for that entire time we lived on Army Post and One navy base raised our two boys my son Peter who is
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with me today served in the first Cavalry division we are an army family for life I have three points to make
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today first the United States armed forces are the best in the world because we reflect and represent the greatest
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country in the world diversity is the military strength because diversity is America’s strength second the military
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makes significant social changes primarily when Congress demands it when President Truman ordered the military to
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desegregate in 1948 it didn’t really happen until the 1970s when Congress demanded it the military reacts to
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congress not the other way around third the military’s half century commitment to equal opportunity and diversity has
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created a more lethal effective and cohesive force in 1971 the military was falling apart race relations were at its
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nator and drug use at its peak over the next 20 years DOD instituted and
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internalized a culture of diversity that transformed the military diversity has worked for over 50 years for the last
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half of my career I taught history at West Point and studied the history of our army in fact I brought for both the
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chair and ranking the West Point history of the Civil War that we wrote while I was there in 1948 president Harry Truman
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issued executive order 9981 integrating the US military it couldn’t go through
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Congress because segregationists blocked civil rights legislation without laws the military slow rolled integration the
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last segregated military unit disbanded in 1954 in 1963 10 states still had zero
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black National Guardsmen as late as 1969 Mississippi had one black National
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Guardsman not one 1% one in the 1960s the Army had 3% black officers and the
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Navy and the Marine Corps 2% black service members could not rent houses outside some bases the children of black
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service members still went to segregated schools as late as 1969 by the early 1970s the effect of
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the Vietnam War drug use and racial Prejudice had created a broken military the quote unquote race problem
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threatened our ability to defend the nation in 197 1 senior civilian leaders
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created the defense race relations Institute they mandated race relations training for the entire Force Recruiting
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for the all volunteer Force forced the military to integrate and to try to solve the race problem it worked
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imperfectly less than 20 years after the defeat in Vietnam the US military shined
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again in 1991 during Desert Storm we destroyed the fourth largest army in the
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world in in days and that Army had 31% African-American
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ncos the success of equal opportunity policy saved us after the defeat in Vietnam created the all volunteer force
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and led us to Victory I know I commanded a diverse Cavalry troop in the 82nd Airborne Division during the Gulf War by
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law women weren’t allowed to serve in tank infantry and Cavalry regimens uh for most of my career it’s just
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unamerican and ineffective when the Army deploys it fights on land and eight on
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land and 8 billion people reside on land 51% of whom are women we must have women
23:30in the force at all ranks at West Point I taught a Cadet who was unable to follow her dream to be an infantryman
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while she was a rose scholar the combat exclusion ended she rebranded infantry graduated from Ranger school and
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commanded an infantry company she was the toughest brightest Cadet I met in 20 years when I commanded a battalion we
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suffered under don’t ask don’t tell a policy that forc service members to lie a friend deployed to Iraq her partner
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and their children could not access military facil facilities no commissary no Health Care no child care now because
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Congress ended don’t ask don’t tell we have another proud military family in both my experience and my study of
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history diversity policies equal opportunity policies are neither Progressive nor political they are
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proven National defense strategies that have made our military more effective and our country safer for over 50 years
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thank you again for allowing me to join you today in the people’s house I’m not recog ize myself for five
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minutes we’re going to start with Mr TBO um as you mentioned uh the Department of Defense uh is requesting another 114
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million for Dei initiatives this addition to $90 million already dedicated uh we mentioned that these di
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professionals are making well into six figures um is this bureaucracy necessary could
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you comment on it what do they do it’s a good question what they do uh
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Mr chairman the the problem I have is the policies that result from such a bureaucracy and and there is um you know
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like you alluded to in your opening remarks a lot of well-intentioned training perhaps some of which is necessary but what is not necessary are
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race and sex based quotas that are prevalent in at least two branches of the military and if it’s a bureaucracy
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that serves to fulfill uh those policies that I think do more than simply uh
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educate people about bias or or promote equal opportunity but in fact promote a
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system of race and sex based discrimination that’s problematic and and they shouldn’t be receiving any
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money and so we should but we should be thinking about those policies that are more than just the promotion of
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diversity but are actually an alteration to the Personnel uh program in the military have you seen people promoted
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not Mr L wants to jump and he can as well have you seen people promoted uh or
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or LED into the the military acmy uh who are not the most meritorious
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because of this Dei ideology so you know I I never impune someone’s promotion or
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their selection I I I take you know the p a person that wears a uniform with the Integrity that it comes with um but what
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is problematic is when West Point for example has racial goals for every admissions class and and admissions
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leaders are evaluated whether or not they meet race race-based goals I I don’t know what the differences between
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a goal and a quota and to me uh we should be we should do more to per
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perhaps promote cohesive teams without implementing a Personnel system that
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that again Alters the nature of how Merit uh uh defines Personnel policy
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does this ideology create a mindset in which people view themselves as members of a subgroup or
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identify based upon where their grandparents or great-grandparents were born perhaps I you know when I was in
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the Army just you know a few years ago we got training on on our conduct and how it was unacceptable to harass
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someone to harm someone um and it seems there are some examples where there is
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now training on on what you believe and and how how you’ve could you get in
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trouble by by be boldly uh um pushing a uh an ideology based on Merit would that
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be a check against you you think in the military today you know
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wrote a book on it yeah yeah I think he you know he he’d be uh better suited to speak on this but um I know there is
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I’ve heard from a number of um you know friends and and folks who want to speak out that there is a a pervasive concern
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about speaking out for the the genuine Integrity of Merit as the foundation for
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military right I recently talked to somebody who wanted to leave the military because of this ideology we’ll go to Mr ler
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um do you feel promotional decisions are being made uh primarily on uh diversity as opposed
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to Pure Merit in today’s military I do not think that promotion
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decisions are being made RIT large based on solely diversity
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uh uh for the purposes of diversity I think that we’ve got tremendous leaders in the military overall I think that we
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still care a great deal about Merit and that these policies that we’re here to discuss today however do muddy the
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waters and we do establish quotas and I want to provide one example uh that that
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uh will just commented on that I experienced while I was in command in the space force I had young people
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underrepresented groups that means non-white coming to me and expressing
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their dismay and what was the word that the ranking member used disappointment that they could no longer
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tell themselves I don’t know what their political affiliation was I don’t know what their religious worldview was I do
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know what their ethnicity was and they came to me expressing their disappointment that hey look my entire
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career I’ve been promoted based on my skill my ability to execute a mission
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and I’m not sure moving forward whether or not I’ll be able to tell if I was
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promoted based on the way I look my accidentals and I can provide a lot of examples of that kind of thing going on
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I can also tell you that we’ve had a failed pilot training experiment as recently as last year the American pilot
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training class it was in 201 21 actually in which we chose those selected for that pilot
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training class in Texas based on their gender and their ethnicity so that we could make the pilot training class look
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more like the United States of America that didn’t turn out well and so we should look into that as well but could
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you quickly say what didn’t turn out well well performance suffered and
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that’s that’s the point I I as an instructor pilot in the t38 I trained young men and women from our
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Allied partners and and from foreign militaries like the general here I served with foreign militaries I did an
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exchange to the people’s Liberation Army Air Force Academy in changu and China when we still did that and I’ll tell you
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we do have the best military on the earth it’s because there’s a naturally occurring diversity in the defense
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department especially that we allow in a merit-based selection system promotion system and so forth so that the best can
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be placed in these various positions we hope they will use to execute a mission in defense of our country thank you okay
30:32
Mr Garcia thank you very much Mr chairman
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thank you to our Witnesses also for being here uh General s juli thank you for joining us today I appreciated your
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testimony um especially and I want not thank you for the Decades of service of course to your nation I want to start by
30:50
just getting a few facts out of the way quickly um I’m sure anyone who saw the movie Oppenheimer which was my favorite
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movie of the year is famili with the Red Scare and obviously you as a historian also familiar with the Army McCarthy
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hearings which seem to be replayed over and over again in in in this house I’m disappointed that some of my colleagues
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also seem to want to replay those hearings and those Scare Tactics but since you’re here I just want to ask you very clearly is the military being
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destroyed by Marxist ideology no it’s not excuse me no it’s not and I don’t
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really even understand how you can say it’s Marxist at least I studied Marxism and and I don’t understand how it
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relates at all I agree with you sir in your experience as a professor also at West Point and in your 36 years of
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service in uniform did you see any evidence of leftist indoctrination no
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how about of critical race Theory no have you ever seen antifa infiltrating
31:42
our military no well thank you General now I’m sure we can all feel a bit better knowing that there is no large
31:48
communist Menace or antifa or others plotting to overthrow the US military which we know Remains the strongest in
31:54
the world and we all I think in a bipartisan way agree that we have the best military in the world and that we’re very proud of now General in all
32:01
in all seriousness can you explain why policies that promote a military that reflects the diversity of our country
32:07
and allows everyone to serve no matter who they love when that protects female soldiers from harassment and actually
32:13
promotes and improves our national security how is that actually reflect how does that improve our actual
32:19
military thank you Congressman I I really believe that we look at a period before we had this which is the 1960s
32:25
and see how terrible the military was and the military imploded without that and if we have a a an army that’s some
32:33
whatat I’m familiar with that has right now you know over 20% uh African-American and yet have almost no
32:40
leadership in that role then we’re we’re going to have problems we don’t have quota system I was on the admissions
32:45
committee at West Point we don’t have quotas there uh but we do want to make sure that our that we look like our
32:51
client our client is the American people and we want to make sure we reflect that I have found that that diversity
32:58
policies make us a stronger nation and a stronger country and I’m I’m unfamiliar
33:04
with anything that that that make diversity policy somehow is going to melt our brains uh in some way when we
33:11
take them it’s not been my experience and and I would agree I mean it’s clear that a more diverse military is good for
33:18
National Security and is good as the reflection of the whole of the whole country and I think the question is is do we want a military that actually
33:24
reflects the entire country um as an lgbtq American myself I also
33:31
understand very clearly that it wasn’t that long ago that an openly gay person and open person from my community U
33:37
could not contribute their talents in the military but it’s been changes to policy and implementation uh that have
33:44
made our military more reflective of who we are as a society and so I I appreciate um your comments General can
33:50
you remind us about some of the challenges our military has had to overcome as it relates to segregation
33:55
and and as it relates to racial tensions within ranks yes I remember we were a segregated Army really into the 1970s we
34:01
had very few cadets at West Point we had only 23 uh Naval midshipman in 1970
34:07
that’s 05% uh we continueed to have very low levels of General officers and um in the
34:14
in the Army and in all services uh into the 1990s and Beyond so we have always
34:19
had a problem making sure that the Army leadership or the military leadership reflects the enlisted ranks and when we
34:26
don’t do that we have problems and we saw that in the ear 1960s and the 1970s it’s the same thing with other
34:32
underrepresented minorities but remember it’s this body that changed it it ended don’t ask don’t tell it brought women to
34:38
West Point it ended the combat exclusion Congress is the one that did that Congress is the one uh that that really
34:44
changes the military and general would you agree that it’s been uh like you said it’s been laws it’s been the
34:50
intervention by Congress it’s been policy changes that have actually had to have been forced sometimes on the
34:55
military to actually improved diversity amongst its ranks it’s only been that usually we did not integrate when there
35:00
was an executive order it was only when Congress did in the 1973 Equal Opportunity Act that really started that
35:06
and put equal opportunity people in every Battalion in the Army and so I think it’s I think it’s pretty clear that in order to achieve uh a military
35:13
that reflects the rest of the country um it Congress needs to push and create action and I appreciate all the efforts
35:20
that have happened in the past to actually create a military that reflects the country and this idea that we should go backwards or or that we should
35:27
Embrace diversity to me is totally uh insane and crazy finally what what
35:32
actually poses a bigger military threat to n security policies to promote cohesion and tolerance and diversity
35:38
within our military or a historic disruption to to officer promotions caused by Senator tuberville’s publicity
35:45
stunt I could Senator tuberville I think Senator Sullivan probably said it best on the floor um why punish people who
35:51
seriously sacrific for America why punish patriotic military members over a policy dispute they had nothing to do
35:57
with en can’t fix this is a huge Readiness Challenge and a huge morale Challenge and yet amazingly not one
36:04
member of those General officers ever made a public complaint about it it shows the professionalism of our general
36:09
officer Corps that no one made a complaint despite the disruption and and cruelty of that policy for I Senator
36:15
tuberville thank you sir and again I I reiterate that that’s the hearing we should be having is on that enormous
36:21
disruption that happened in the Senate and how the H the house can help Rectify that thank you and I yield back Miss f
36:28
uh thank you Mr chairman uh Mr uh Lieutenant Colonel ler thank you for
36:34
your service and for being here today in 2021 the United States Military Academy
36:39
West Point talked cadet’s critical race Theory through a seminar titled
36:44
understanding whiteness and white rage at an nor Services Committee hearing earlier this year or last year former
36:51
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Millie was questioned about teaching critical race Theory at the
36:57
service acmy General Millie defended the practice saying he thought it was important for those in uniform to be
37:03
quote open-minded and openly read end quote he went on to State quote I want
37:09
to understand white rage and I’m and I’m white end quote in your experience as a
37:15
squadron commander with the US space force with learning about whiteness and white rage help promote unit cohesion or
37:23
a team- centered culture the the answer is anyone who’s focused on war fighting doesn’t
37:29
naturally think to talk about these things in in the military workplace we’re focused on a particular mission in defense of the country to deter conflict
37:36
and to win our nation’s Wars I do want to make one additional point if I may that the general has just explained that
37:42
he never saw critical race theory in his time at West Point or in his lengthy honorable military career in doing
37:48
research for my book that got me fired I found that West Point Cadets who had
37:53
recently graduated these are impressive people black white clearly leftist in their political worldview had produced a
38:00
40-page policy proposal is what it was called that I consider a communist screed anti-American race baiting
38:07
accusing leaders at West Point of failing the American people criticizing West Point as an institution for racism
38:15
criticizing them for failing the Army and that they would continue to fail the Army what I found in that document is
38:20
that this General’s work is quoted throughout the entire 40 pages so you can’t say that you’ve never been exposed
38:26
to critical race Theory when a bunch of left-wing Marxist leaning students
38:31
attack the West Point Military Academy relying on your work and so I’d be I’d
38:37
be curious to find out if they consulted with him in the production of that 40-page policy proposal to top topple
38:43
statues at West Point to rename buildings when that kind of invitation
38:48
came to me as a commander to rename streets and buildings everyone at the base was allowed to populate the Excel
38:55
spreadsheet that came to us as a pasker from the Pentagon and I saw George Washington’s name on that list because
39:01
ideology that poisons the mind doesn’t disambiguate between racists evil men
39:07
and good men and Patriots what what they did is they said he is a Founder he’s white I hate him and we’d like to remove
39:14
his name from buildings and streets this is the kind of thing that ideology does to the military it divides people and
39:20
the best evidence we’ve seen so far excuse me 10 more seconds is the recent testimony from
39:26
president University presidents who tried to excuse and contextualize genocidal rhetoric and and
39:34
what CRT diversity equity and inclusion mandates and Marxist ideology do to a
39:41
university president or to the Chinese pla they will do to an American Service
39:47
member and I’ve seen it firsthand thank you I think it would be wise for the committee to follow up on the uh report
39:55
that you’re talking about um so I I hope we’ll be able to do that according to
40:01
the Department of Defense website its mission is to quote provide the military
40:06
forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security end quote do you
40:12
think that teaching our future military leaders about whiteness and white rage will better prepare them to deter war
40:19
and defend our nation no I do not and do you believe promoting divisive Concepts
40:25
you’ve I think indicated this like critical race Theory have an impact on Military Recruitment and
40:31
Retention well I’ve got uh some some polling data here that if we have time I
40:36
can site but uh this is one of the prevalent themes that shows up among active duty service members who have
40:43
been pulled about their concerns about the direction the military has headed why they’re choosing to leave the
40:49
service and Young Americans why they’re choosing not to join they sometimes call it wokeness that’s colloquial but they
40:54
specifically if they know what they’re talking about refer to critical race Theory and if you know what you’re talking about you know that it’s rooted
40:59
in Marxist ideology uh Mr chairman I’d like to ask unanimous consent to enter to the record
41:07
any um document that Mr ler has such as that survey um in in the um minutes of
41:15
this hearing I yeah I can I’m sorry you didn’t ask me to speak no well I’m just
41:22
going to ask one more question um Are there specific recommendations you have for maintaining a strong and cohesive
41:28
military culture while addressing concerns about ideological influences yes ma’am I think every
41:36
American citizen veteran or having never served looks to the Congress to use the power of the purse to hold our military
41:42
accountable but we also need brave men and women in uniform to respectfully give feedback use their voice and stand
41:49
on their principle we don’t all have to agree but we do have to agree that the mission of the United States military is
41:54
Paramount and merit-based selection and promotion is the only effective principle to keep a strong military I
42:01
don’t care what people’s views are on diversity equity and inclusion I really don’t but we can’t use our individual
42:07
political or social or cultural worldview to shape military selection processes of all institutions the long
42:13
trusted US military must remain a merit-based system otherwise you’ll lose that system
42:20
thank you I yield back thank you Mr Goldman thank you Mr chairman um I want
42:25
to see if we can find um some common ground here Mr tibo I heard you say a little
42:33
earlier that you support um diversity as
42:38
at least one variable to focus on um to either admit uh in the uh service acad
42:47
students in the serviceis or uh officers evolving is that officer promotion is
42:53
that right what I said uh Mr Goldman is that I I am willing to accept and
42:58
support diversity as a byproduct of good military policy it’s not something we should certainly not something we should avoid but it’s not something that the
43:04
military should cater policies to promote that should do you think that do
43:10
you think that um diversity of backgrounds is beneficial to the
43:17
military as it relates to a person’s ability to do a job in the
43:22
military yes if something doesn’t if a capability doesn’t exist in the military
43:27
and we need someone with a more diverse background to do that job then yes it’s important but what I don’t think that
43:32
means is that a person’s skin color is relevant to those jobs you know and the
43:39
house arm Services I I hear you and and I’m going to just follow up on that I mean because I think there’s some contextual things that that we need to
43:45
talk about here because you and Mr L are talking about Merit based Merit based and focusing on that but you know when
43:52
you look at the history of discrimination in the military what you have to consider is that
43:59
everybody does not start from the same place so Mr cil’s family growing up with
44:06
a general in the military has advantages uh in terms of entering the
44:13
military that someone whose family does not have would not have you agree with
44:19
that right yes okay so if the military was uh segregated uh if
44:26
um non-whites and women were not allowed if um if the LGBT community with because
44:33
of donut don’t tell we’re not allowed you therefore understand how those
44:38
people from those different groups are not starting at the same place in terms of evaluating quote Merit based right
44:46
but Congressman I think that’s a false binary the choice is not between discriminate against non-whites and you
44:54
know choose anyone I’m not talking about discriminating I mean there’s a there are only a certain number of people that
44:59
can be admitted to a class that can be promoted and if you’re basically saying
45:06
that um you cannot consider anything else other than what you call Pure Merit
45:13
and there’s no definition for Pure Merit you are necessarily perpetuating discrimination that has occurred for
45:20
generations and when you start to see things such as go government
45:27
reviews The Air Force independent review that said 40% of in in 20 and 21 40% of
45:34
black and African-American service members indicated a lack of trust in their chain of command to address racism
45:42
bias and unequal opportunities you are
45:48
necessarily not acknowledging not addressing what is a fundamental problem
45:54
not only for retention but but also for promotion and if women are leaving the
46:00
service uh 28% more because of sexist culture Family Planning or sexual
46:09
assault that has to be addressed that you cannot I I do not believe you are
46:14
sitting here and saying that it is okay you mentioned something about uh you support training on
46:21
harassment um but if there is implicit or explicit racism or discrimination you
46:29
would agree that has no place in the military right of course okay there needs to be training because a lot of
46:36
people don’t know what that means and they often don’t know that what they are saying is actually discriminatory so
46:43
there needs to actually be training so that everyone from Every Walk of Life in this country can have an opportunity to
46:52
participate to represent our country to be in the military and the problem that we run into when we try to say purely
47:00
race neutral merit-based and you know again once again we’re obviously talking
47:06
about a disproportionate number of uh white people primarily who are in
47:14
positions of authority who are elevating people who are admitting
47:20
people um if they are not trying to address some of the historical wrongs to
47:26
give people who have not had that access to the military to this opportunity give
47:32
them that opportunity then we are just going to perpetuate the historical
47:38
discrimination for forever so I’m not saying marit doesn’t matter I think it
47:44
absolutely matters and I certainly understand Mr L’s point that we do not want to put people who are unprepared in
47:49
bad situations but to Simply say that diversity should have no impact what
47:55
ever on our military will continue to perpetuate a discrimination that is
48:03
unfortunately embedded in our military’s history and with that I yield back Mr
48:14
chairman Mr Perry thanks Mr chairman and gentlemen God bless you for your
48:21
service I really really appreciate um your sacrifices on behalf of this
48:27
nation uh as often is the case my position here up on this day is my my
48:32
five minutes most of it will be spent correcting in my opinion the record of the things that have been said previous
48:40
as opposed to the questions I might have asked each of you so I’m going to go through a couple things here and maybe
48:46
it’s not only correction but it’s clarification of the record as I would like to say it sure Mr Sidle is that how
48:52
you say your name Sig sigil sorry about that my apologies mother got it wrong for years uh I’m sure the name tag was
48:58
probably difficult um I just want to make the the remark and the point that the segregationists that blocked
49:04
integration were decidedly in one political party and I think it’s important to note that because they will
49:10
be up here acting like they never did that and it’s important for the historical record as a uh fan of history
49:16
that um that you can appreciate that there is there are consequences that
49:23
America cannot forget and should not forget regarding diversity I hear that all the time diversity is our strength
49:28
adversity is our strength and it’s Mr TBO you just answered a bunch of questions about that and it is a
49:36
strength when we have different viewpoints about how to solve a problem but if we’re all in a boat a rowboat
49:42
there’s four of us in a rowboat we all have a different idea of where we’re going in a different ore diversity is
49:47
not going to be much of a strength right we’re all going to be rowing in four different directions so diversity is a
49:53
strength we’re all pointing in the same Direction otherwise it’s not a strength
49:58
and I don’t know how that can be refuted but if somebody wants to they’re welcome to do that regarding the comment that
50:06
there was a defeat in Vietnam I want to make sure because I grew up during that time as you did I imagine or just
50:12
gauging from from uh seeing you here um it was not a military defeat it was
50:17
people like Walter kronite another leftist and political activists in the United States of America that imposed
50:24
that defeat and it’s important to me I I I revered my uncle when he came home
50:30
from Vietnam in his uniform as a guy who served and the sacrifices he made and it
50:36
colored my decision to join the military and it’s important again for the record to remind Americans that the military
50:43
did not lose that war that was a politically lost war and I don’t want
50:48
that to be uh attributed or ascribed to the to the military regarding the
50:54
McCarthy hearings I want to remind everybody in the room that while I disagreed with his tactics
51:01
as most Americans did if they read Whitaker Chambers book witness and if
51:06
they go through the vona transcripts almost every single person he named was
51:11
a communist sympathizer organizer and involved in the subversion of the United States government let’s not forget
51:19
that regarding those folks that were held up by Mr Tu by Senator tuberville
51:24
and the fact that they didn’t complain well good for them because when we wear the uniform yours is not to question why
51:32
yours is just to do and die and we don’t talk about political things because it is against the regulation so they
51:39
weren’t doing anything grandiose they were doing their Duty as they should and tuberville was doing his
51:46
duty as he should the policies in the military regarding the subject at hand
51:52
are wrong and thank God somebody was willing to fight for them there is a specific definition for merit
51:59
I would ask my colleague he can go look up any search engine and see it
52:05
um I joined the military and I love my time in the military it defined me and I defined it
52:14
and it was based on Merit and I didn’t have a leg up I knew my uncle who served in Vietnam but when I raised my hand as
52:22
an E1 no one knew anybody I knew knew and it didn’t
52:27
matter and I love the fact that even coming from a broken home with no
52:33
connections and no clue about anything I could work my tail off and make something of myself and even though I
52:40
didn’t have my Commander’s recommendation to go to officer candidates school I got into officer
52:46
candidates school and I become the president of my class and even though I didn’t have a
52:52
recommendation to go to flight school where you’re measured with an a tenth of a point I graduated second in my class
52:58
alongside soldiers and service members from the Air Force Academy and West Point of which I was not allowed to go
53:05
to because I wasn’t good enough and I wasn’t good enough but the point is I work my tail off because it was based on
53:12
Merit and I could make something of myself and while I complained to myself
53:18
I didn’t complain to anybody else when I didn’t when I tried to get an inner trans inter service transfer from the
53:24
Army to the Air Force because instead of flying cobras I wanted to fly f-16s and a friend of mine a friend of mine he got
53:32
to go he was a black man but when I applied to the same unit I was
53:38
told sorry you don’t fit the position you know what I did I got after my job
53:44
as a cobra pilot I got after my job and I went on with my life I didn’t cry my
53:51
eyes about it there’s a bunch of people that are up on this day today that are going to complain to to you and tell you about your life in the military who have
53:57
never served and don’t have a damn clue about any of this but Mr L in particular
54:05
Mr TBO in particular God bless you for your viewpoints and your willingness to
54:12
sacrifice what you have for the things that you believe in because you are correct our military is being destroyed
54:20
right now and we all know it we all know it and while I wish and I hope that it
54:26
Still Remains the best military in the world I’m not sure that that’s the case anymore and we better damn well come to
54:32
that realization and get after that Mr chairman I yield thank you good points Mr Frost
54:40
thank you so much Mr chairman I just want to point out to what my colleague just said you know as it relates to
54:46
members of the United States military whose promotions were being held up because of a senator who had problems
54:52
from an ideological point of view with bot autonomy the message to them was ours is not to reason why but to do or
55:00
die but then to a gentleman here who did complain and fight wrote a book about
55:06
his issues the message was completely different which I just shows I think shows the hypocrisy in this room right
55:12
now from the other side of the aisle I’m from the state of Florida um this war on wokeism is not new to me um and it’s a
55:19
shame that Republicans on this committee haven’t caught on to my Governor DeSantis failing presidential campaign
55:25
that’s based on this war on woke and this m misplacement on wokeism in the
55:30
military endangers America’s national security by ignoring the real threats
55:36
some of the real threats to our national security are low military Recruitment and Retention rates which is what I want to focus on today look service members
55:44
aren’t leaving the military because of Dei training or because ofit military
55:49
base was renamed or because someone accessed an abortion but what I do hear
55:55
from my constituents is this I’ve had folks write about problems with housing allowance being too low in the military
56:02
people messaging me about saying medications are too expensive um folks
56:07
worrying that service members won’t be able to get pay if republicans in Congress shut down the government these
56:13
are the real things that resonate with American the American people because these are the issues that this committee
56:19
needs to be addressing uh General you testified that the Army became more diverse and welcoming to soldiers of
56:25
color over your time in service how has that inclusion helped retain talented service members we have a greater thank
56:33
you Congressman we have a a greater pool to draw from we didn’t used to be able to draw from people of color or women or
56:40
we had lgbtq they were kicked out of which I know many that were kicked out we have a broader thing we need every
56:47
person to be able to serve and we can’t do that if we are trying to kick people out or not allowing people to serve and
56:53
not make it welcoming we’re a better Army because of our diversity I 100% agree agree with you I mean we know uh
56:59
at West Point that black students had highlighted at during their time the art memorializing the trader confederate
57:05
general uh Robert E Lee that hung on the wall and the fact that the only black person hanging on the walls was someone
57:12
who was a slave and I think that things like that hurt our military Readiness
57:18
and National Security when it makes our service members uncomfortable um diversity Equity inclusion strengthens
57:24
our national military it does not work against it General you’ve also testified about your own story of service uh quote
57:31
I didn’t choose the Army uh because of patriotism I signed up for the money end quote and I don’t bring that up as a
57:37
disparaging thing because we know that this is something that is true for many of our service members um and especially
57:44
when I speak with folks who look like myself in my community um that are looking at joining the military you
57:50
joined um to help afford College your college and ended up staying for more than four decad deade so thank you so
57:55
much for your service we know that many soldiers enlist for financial reasons but then choose not to reinlist because
58:02
it’s un affordable for them um have you observed any Trends around how economic struggles can stunt a soldier’s career
58:09
uh thank you Congressman yes I particularly think that’s true because our soldiers now deploy or actually rotate so often to Eastern Europe to
58:17
South Korea uh and to the Middle East without additional money for that and so if you’re doing two nine-month rotations
58:23
to one of those two places plus National Training Center or other things it’s incredible uh diff difficult
58:30
particularly for the family at home because they have no great child care options yeah yeah and um I I I would
58:36
love to host a hearing about that instead um to see how we can handle those struggles um since at least the
58:41
1940s Congress has given the uh the United States military money to create signing and reenlistment bonuses to
58:47
incentivize service members to join and stay in the service General do you think the military should be collecting data
58:53
on why and when when bonuses are helpful so we can better understand the financial hardships of our service
58:58
members yes we have been doing bonuses at least since I’ve been in and they work because just like I was a poor kid
59:04
uh coming from rural Georgia I had no way of getting through college without it those financial incentives matter in
59:09
an all volunteer force a second thing that this committee should be hosting hearings on to figure out how we can uh
59:15
better our national security and Military Readiness and preparedness look um and I know we we have uh um Mr L and
59:23
folks who have had uncomfortable or maybe negative
59:29
interpretations or experiences with Dei and I’m I would never take away someone’s experience from them but what
59:36
I do want to call out is there’s a difference between seeing something that you see value in diversity equity and
59:41
inclusion or diversity in our military and saying we ought to fixed these
59:47problems I think there’s some problems with it I think we ought to fix them versus saying we should just completely
59:52
get rid of it I mean in 19 54 when we began to desegregate schools in this
59:58
country we knew it would be uncomfortable we knew there would be problems but we did it because it was the right thing to
1:00:04
do this hearing is entitled the risk of progressive ideologies in the US military Dei is not a progressive
1:00:11
ideology it’s just the right thing to do if we want to talk about Progressive ideology in the militaries we can talk
1:00:17
about affordable housing and food we can talk about tuition assistance we can talk about Universal Health Care that
1:00:22
the military provides Progressive ideology in the military but not Dei thank you so much and I yield
1:00:30
back thank you Mr Higgins thank you Mr chairman I thank
1:00:37
our panelists for being here today I joined the army in 1988 began boot camp in 1989 as
1:00:46
private one station unit training wanted to be an
1:00:52
MP that ended up working out for me but one of the one of the initial lessons
1:00:59
that you learn very quickly when you step off of that
1:01:05
bus and you have to face these guys at a car from Granite wrapped in
1:01:11
leather tapping that brown round against your forehead is you are no longer
1:01:19
you you now belong to the United States Army
1:01:26
to discuss diversity as if it was ever some sort of
1:01:33
an effective mechanism by which a deadly force could be established to fight and win Wars across
1:01:41
the world to liberate the oppressed for
1:01:46
Generations is insane the we don’t care about
1:01:51
anything other than the the the the deadly effectiveness of our
1:01:57
army it requires dis discrimination because developing deadly skills in a
1:02:03
force of men requires us to recognize distinction
1:02:08
to discriminate between those who can become lethal weapons and those who
1:02:16
cannot nobody cares about your color of your skin your cultural background your
1:02:23
ethnicity who your mama or your daddy was your ass now belongs to the Army and we’re going
1:02:30
to make a soldier out of you oh we’re going to remove you from this unit and you go do something else no problem the
1:02:38
world needs insurance salesman and everybody else but if you want to be a
1:02:43
soldier we’re going to carve you into what it is to be a soldier I don’t
1:02:48
understand why my colleagues can’t see the difference between civilian life and
1:02:54
Military Ary life nobody’s firing live rounds at us
1:03:00
up here that’s not part of our designated job description but a damn sure is a job
1:03:08
description for our soldiers and we can’t fill our ranks in the United
1:03:13
States Army right now you know why I think you do know why because
1:03:19
conservative families Across America that have a deep lineage of military
1:03:25
service are not encouraging their sons and daughters to join the Army because
1:03:31
it is crap that that our sons and daughters are having to deal with now in
1:03:36
the army that my colleagues are applauding like
1:03:41
Yay you know we need to diversify the order to diversify it it we called
1:03:47
uniform for a reason we must be uniformly deadly and
1:03:53
effective rapidly deployed well we care not what the color of the skin is to the
1:03:59
soldier next to us or whether or not he’s gay or straight that has zero to do
1:04:05
with the performance of our army and yet we are indeed attempting to indoctrinate
1:04:11
those very civilian considerations into our military that’s
1:04:17
why you can’t fill the ranks because traditional American families know that
1:04:22
that’s a that that’s a wrong formula Ranger TBO Rangers lead the way all the way sir
1:04:31
oh so I’m going to ask you you’re opening line of your state of your statement you rightly draw upon a
1:04:38
distinction regarding considering between those who join our military and those who choose just other courses of
1:04:45
life you you said I quote training the United States Army is meant to melt away the effects of civilian life and to
1:04:51
forge Americans into soldiers ready to devote their lives to the mass
1:04:57
application of violence on behalf of American interests can you speak to the
1:05:02
uniqueness of what it is to be a soldier as opposed to being a civilian in
1:05:08
America to to be a soldier is to live a life where you take for granted the fact that you would die for the person next
1:05:14
to you and that you would enter an arena where that death is possible uh on
1:05:20
purpose and that you would be prepared as a team and as a person to do whatever
1:05:25
it took not to survive but to win uh and even if that requires immense suffering
1:05:31
sacrifice and uh an inconvenience every day for you and your family did you ever
1:05:37
for one day could at anytime consider the diversity of the
1:05:43
Ranger next to you uh no thank you very much Mr TBO M Mr
1:05:50
lir General thank you all for your service Mr chair chman iiel okay M Miss
1:05:58
Porter was that my recognition Okay Miss Porter all right um uh Mr
1:06:07
uh Mr ler do you agree with President Trump’s executive order
1:06:16
9981 well you Sor excuse me president I’m so sorry you have to explain what you mean I don’t know executive orders
1:06:22
by number do you agree with president Truman’s order that integrated the armed services despite the fact that separate
1:06:28
but equal was still the law of the land at the time let me say that
1:06:34
there this is an important point the congressman to your left has
1:06:41
said he wanted to find common ground there’s a lot of what the general has said today that I don’t disagree with
1:06:47
whatsoever but that seems to me irrelevant to the discussion of progressivism as an ideology in the
1:06:52
military workplace let me point out one example in answer to your question of
1:06:58
what I am opposed to reintroduction of claiming my time Mr claiming my time
1:07:04
consequence Mr chair it’s my time of Dei initiatives we’ve got Mr chair i’ like
1:07:09
toclaim my time segregation because of Dei and I’m happy to talk to
1:07:16
that Mr L I’m going to try again do you agree I appreciate that you have
1:07:22
opinions and you’re entitled to have them but I’d like you to try to answer the question I’m asking with respect sir
1:07:27
do you agree with President Truman’s executive order 9981 that integrated the armed services
1:07:35
despite the fact that separate but equal was still the law of the land at the
1:07:40
time the mil I agree that the military has led the way in integration and unity
1:07:47
which has been the strength of the United States military but we’re undoing it all with diverse okay thank you diverse Equity reclaiming my time
1:07:54
that decision was Progressive at the time in other words the military went to a place of
1:08:02
integration and efforts to have black and white soldiers working alongside
1:08:08
each other it wasn’t always perfect it wasn’t always easy but it was literally the definition of progress and
1:08:15
Progressive it went beyond existing law General did Truman’s actions to
1:08:23
integrate the milit AR under EO 9981 lead directly to any Readiness deficits
1:08:28
you’re a military historian No in fact the first thing it did congresswoman was integrate Arlington National
1:08:36
Cemetery Mr laber you are an active duty um and thank you for your service Air Force officer in 2010 is that correct
1:08:43
yeah okay um did any were there any um big problems in military Readiness in
1:08:51
2010 as a young flyer I never paid attention to what you folks were doing I never paid attention to reports on
1:08:57
Readiness lethality I simply focused on a mission it was learning how to fly an aircraft and at that time it was
1:09:03
training our Allied partners and foreign military Pilots how to fly Jets well I’m I’m glad Mr L that you were able to
1:09:09
focus on your military duties um and it seems to me that your own testimony here
1:09:15
is is a really good example of the fact that the repeal of don’t ask don’t tell did not cause A disruption in in your
1:09:22
ability or the milit Readiness of the Air Force to do its job uh General is there any empirical evidence that gay
1:09:29
Americans serving openly has hurt military Readiness no so historically
1:09:34
when the military has been Progressive has gone beyond where other policies may
1:09:41
be has has tried to encourage um diversity or welcome people to be
1:09:47
diverse and their and um to learn about each other there has been no harm to force readiness
1:09:54
General could one consider President Truman’s executive action A diversity initiative right General Truman’s why am
1:10:01
I having so much trouble with this General could one consider President Truman’s executive action A diversity
1:10:06
initiative yes how about the 2010 repeal of don’t ask don’t tell yes so in your
1:10:12
view should the military roll back those diversity policies absolutely not Mr tibo do you think the military should
1:10:18
roll back those initiatives uh no congresswoman I don’t because the integration of the Armed
1:10:24
Forces in 1948 was a recognition that the military is different from society and so it so it should March to the beat
1:10:30
of a Different Drum and that that’s why I think it was such a good policy because it ensured that we had the best
1:10:36
that things changed in 1960 when the military became a beacon for affirmative action and quotas uh but I I agree with
1:10:44
you that it was good policy in 1948 okay and do you have uh would you repeal don’t ask don’t
1:10:49
tell no because it’s a means by which the military attracts the best talent
1:10:54
but what I would object to is if the military had a quota for LGBT Americans do they the books not that I know of but
1:11:01
they do for black white hispanic Americans and and I think those are General is that correct I’m not aware my
1:11:06brother served he went to the United States Naval Academy he served five years he led um he served on a nuclear
1:11:14submarine I don’t recall him ever enforcing being part of as an
1:11:20officer any type of quota system there are no systems
1:11:28congresswoman I don’t recall that being US military policy I don’t remember ever passing a law since we’re in Congress
1:11:33and we make the rules I don’t remember ever passing a law with regard to that our military is more effective when it’s
1:11:40diverse and you can’t have an effective diverse Team without teaching people how to work effectively together that’s what
1:11:47these initiative should focus on I yield back thank you Mr chairman uh and I also
1:11:54want to uh thank all of our Witnesses for their excellent testimony today and also for their service to the country
1:12:01and also members of this committee uh who served in the uniform as well as um
1:12:07uh in this body um so Mr sidel am I have
1:12:12that right um or general sidel I want to look at three attacks on politicization
1:12:19or diversity changes um and the thing that I guess people are calling woke um I want to
1:12:26start with women in the military and of course women were systematically excluded from the military for a long time and there there’s a huge struggle
1:12:34about that and finally women were able to enter the Armed Forces on um
1:12:41relatively equal status I don’t know if my friend Mr Higgins would consider these part of the traditional American
1:12:48soldiers or not but women have served for a long time in different capacities and now have equality but if I’m
1:12:55assuming that women in the military want the same rights that women across the country do and after uh Donald Trump’s
1:13:02um Jerry Mander Supreme Court overturned Row versus Wade and women’s right to
1:13:07choose which was in the law from more than half century women across the country um have rejected uh that and
1:13:15have stood up for uh their full reproductive Freedom including in Kansas
1:13:21Wisconsin Michigan California Vermont you name it everywhere it’s been on the ballot vast majorities of women and men
1:13:27have supported women’s right to choose so I assume now I don’t have a study on but I assume women in the military feel
1:13:33the same way um and um that they would want to maintain their right to choose
1:13:40their own reproductive Healthcare now Senator tuberville interfered with hundreds and hundreds of military
1:13:46promotions for many many months in order to stop women in the military from
1:13:51having their complete full access to reproductive choice and to healthc Care
1:13:57Now who do you think is politicizing the military is it Senator tuberville with
1:14:04his anti-choice agenda where he wants to dictate to all of the women of the
1:14:09military what their access will be to healthcare or is it those women themselves are they the ones that are
1:14:15somehow perpetrating a woke agenda by saying that they want to have uh equal
1:14:22choice and don’t we depend on women in the military these days last I saw it was something like 18 or 20% you know
1:14:29even in the Army so please answer that if you would yes um I would say that Senator tuberville created uh political
1:14:34ponds out of those General officers we have a non-political army and we’re one of the few countries in the history of the world that has never had a military
1:14:40coup d’ and it’s partly because we are non-political and yet Senator tuberville created political pawns for a policy he
1:14:47disagreed with I couldn’t disagree more with him for doing that and hurting our force and those General and flag
1:14:52officers um the military also depends um uh on
1:14:59lots of uh African Americans Hispanic Americans Asian Americans that’s just a
1:15:05reality you might love it you might hate it you might be uh ambivalent about it you might just accept it but in any
1:15:11event that’s the reality uh as I understand it um and in any event um the
1:15:18Army decided that it wanted to rename military bases that had been named not after us generals but after Confederate
1:15:25generals who joined the Confederacy in Rebellion against the union so like Fort
1:15:31Benning uh was renamed uh after a
1:15:36pro-union um pro-american uh General Fort Gordon was
1:15:41renamed as Fort Eisenhower Fort Hill was renamed as Fort Walker and yet I take it
1:15:48this is part of the big anti-woke arraignment and indictment of the military
1:15:53that we have renamed military bases after pro-union pro-american soldiers generals
1:16:01people who’ve been loyal and faithful to the Union as opposed to those who have opposed the union and took up arms
1:16:07against the union um in traitor traitorous Insurrection
1:16:13now who’s politicizing this question is it the
1:16:18people who go along with the Army’s decision to say that’s who our bases
1:16:23should be named after pro- Americans or the people who are uh wanting to stick
1:16:30to the old Confederate uh battle names and I’d like you to address that and also Mr ler I think you’ve taken the
1:16:36position against changing the names yeah well remember that the names were changed Congressman because this body voted overwhelmingly overrode The veto
1:16:44of President Trump to create the naming Commission of which I served as Vice chair it was my proudest moment to
1:16:49rename those after true American heroes and not those who chose treason to preserve slavery thank you and do you
1:16:54agreee with that Mr L I’ll say that it’s my view that secretary defense Lloyd Austin has politicized the military as soon as the
1:17:01Supreme Court decision was made he issued a policy memorandum blaming the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Ro v
1:17:08Wade on the recruitment I’m asking about the naming I’m asking about the naming I’m asking about the naming of our
1:17:13military bases if you don’t want to address it say you don’t want to answer it I understand I walk black lives
1:17:19matter Plaza yesterday with a Chinese American I didn’t ask you no I’m answering your question excuse me and
1:17:25she advocated she is okay Mr chairman if we because for leaving those witness
1:17:31wants to wants to answer more than yes or question we can let him answer the question yeah I can let him answer
1:17:36because I I wasn’t quite done yet but now he’s occuping my time if you want to to answer that’s fine so yes about the renaming of the
1:17:43bases after pro-union pro-american General Mr ask and I’d like to answer that question in more than just a yes or
1:17:49no format okay I walked the black lives matter Plaza yesterday with she van Fleet Chinese uh
1:17:56maist cultural revolution Survivor and I had an interesting conversation with her in which she advocated I’d never thought
1:18:02about this before by the way I don’t address this topic in my book I wrote about Marxist critical race Theory she
1:18:07said I’d recommend that once we defeat wokeism we leave all of the black lives matter paint on the ground and the signs
1:18:14naming the streets I asked her why she says because it’s a reminder that once here on the north side of the White House we had a woke Revolution a Marxist
1:18:22Revolution take place and I agree with that it’s a reminder that there has been such
1:18:29divisive conflict in this enemy before that people were willing to use violent Force to hurt one another I have no
1:18:34problem with the General’s efforts if I understand you correctly I’m trying to torture out an answer what you’re saying is that we
1:18:41should have army bases named after Confederate generals or Nazi generals people we’ve defeated I’m not willing to
1:18:48let you put words in my mouth I’m we’re about two minutes over here so we’re just going to let Mr Mr ler finish and
1:18:54that’s it so so my point is this is not an issue in which I’ve actively been
1:18:59involved the renaming a Bas I wrote a book about Marxist Dei Marxist critical race that’s my expertise I have no
1:19:07personal issue with the fact that this gentleman to my left whove honorably served this country has been a part of a
1:19:13commission to do that I have personal opinions about why it’s wrongheaded and part of an ideological push but this is
1:19:21not my you would not have them in other words that’s not something I ever F I
1:19:27think I got my answer Mr I’ll back for Mr
1:19:32BS thank thank you Mr chairman I appreciate the witnesses being here today um
1:19:40so Mr ler um when we look at uh some of the
1:19:46things that have uh uh been said by uh the gentleman to your to your left and I
1:19:52I can’t don’t think I can pronounce your name I want to pronounce it right sigil Mr sigil yes thank you and I and I’ve
1:19:58read I’ve read your testimony um I I would I’m interested to know your
1:20:05reaction to to his positions with regard to um the diversification of the
1:20:11military sure and Dei thank you uh one point that the general made with which I
1:20:18disagree is that diversity is our strength I don’t think there’s any evidence for that but the but
1:20:23definitions matter words matter and we’re losing touch with this I would
1:20:28reject the notion that diversity is our strength based on Dei definitions of diversity equity and
1:20:35inclusion Merit Bas okay I’m going to get away from that because if we’re trying to find a Unity of of
1:20:40understanding let me say this skill and performance matter in the military if you’d like to deter conflict and win our
1:20:45nation’s Wars period as a commander in the military I had a black Colonel fly
1:20:51across the country to promote me to Lieutenant Colonel because I love the hell out of the guy and respect his
1:20:56views on The Federalist Papers which he was teaching me after work hours and because he was the best leader I’ve ever
1:21:01worked with the best Airman that I had working
1:21:06for me incidentally was a transgender Airman so don’t me and say that
1:21:13you think you know what you’re talking about you’ve never served you don’t understand how this works we care about performance in the military
1:21:20period you don’t know what you’re talking about most of the people in this room don’t
1:21:25know what they’re talking about we need lethality in the military period all of
1:21:30the stuff you guys talk about the men and women in uniform don’t think about they go play Call of Duty at night after
1:21:36they learn their mission and execute that mission period they don’t know what you’re talking about they don’t know what you’re voting on they don’t care
1:21:43about your sexual preference I they don’t care what you look like and they don’t care what the person next to them looks like
1:21:49period I’m a citizen of this country and I can dislike you and criticize you all
1:21:54I want here but our men and women in uniform cannot and so I speak on their behalf when I say lethality matters
1:22:00merit-based selection and promotions matter and your ideology doesn’t matter one bit and we need to identify
1:22:07principles which will preserve our Union and preserve the unity of the United States military if we do not we’ll lose
1:22:14that Union and it’s my contest whatever Truman did decades ago no you ask your
1:22:22average military service member when Truman was the president of the United States they can’t even tell you but my point is they’re focused on what’s
1:22:29happened since the George Floyd riots there are things that have happened in the last three years in our
1:22:34military that we’re up here to testify about not the not the things that happened 60 years ago were great today
1:22:40because of what we’ve done for the last half century in the fighting of the Cold War and Mr Mr lar what has happened in
1:22:46the last three years that has uh caused lethality to deteriorate in the military
1:22:53there’s been an overt politicization of the military workplace and the forcing of trainings
1:22:59that are anti-American that criticize our Founders that alleg that white supremacy is a problem within the
1:23:05military ranks which has never been proven and all of that rhetoric that occurred once secretary defense Lloyd
1:23:10Austin took office led to a bunch of moaning and bitching and complaining behind closed
1:23:16doors of our service members and I heard it as a commander and so I wrote a for written
1:23:22IG complaint about it that was dismissed by senior leaders because they were afraid of the political and racial
1:23:28climate that we’ve created in this country and so they were afraid to hold one another accountable for their
1:23:34politics senior leaders so they’re not held accountable for their political worldview but young people will be held
1:23:40accountable I’m living evidence and a living example of the fact that the diversity initiatives are discriminatory
1:23:47discriminatory I was kicked out for saying I’d like to depoliticize the workplace not for advocating for
1:23:53republicanism or excuse me small r republican not for advocating for Republican candidates not for
1:23:58criticizing Democrat candidates I never publicly advocated for anyone
1:24:04politically but I was forced out because of viewpoint discrimination diversity initiatives are discriminatory and
1:24:10inclusion init initiatives are exclusive of my viewpoint so and and so I’m living
1:24:16evidence that the politicization of the military workplace in the past several years is discriminatory and it
1:24:21discriminates specifically against conservatism and Christianity period Mr chairman I want to submit for
1:24:28the record uh something called Declaration of military accountability an open letter to the American people
1:24:34from signatories of the declar Declaration of military accountability into the
1:24:40record so and then I apologize I I wanted I actually had questions for for
1:24:45Mr TBO Mr sesley as well um but uh We’ve run out of time and I don’t think I’m
1:24:50going to get that additional two and a half minutes that the ranking member got so I’ll yield
1:24:56back Mr Lynch thank you Mr chairman General said jie uh first of
1:25:04all thank you all for your your service uh to our country really do appreciate it um I’ve been a member of this
1:25:11committee for about 22 years um and while I I have not served in the
1:25:18military um I’ve done LED most of them but done about 20 trips to Afghanistan
1:25:24over 20 trips to Iraq to try to understand because I I I have not served but I thought if I spent enough time on
1:25:31the ground that I might learn I might learn I might understand what it is our
1:25:37our our service men and women uh dealing with um one of my last trips to
1:25:43Afghanistan before the withdrawal um visited a place called uh camp leatherneck and uh had a had a chance to
1:25:50uh participate in a a citizenship
1:25:56ceremony and what what they did was they they have a couple of programs one is mner there’s a couple of programs where
1:26:03non-citizens of the United States can serve in the military and it improves
1:26:08their chances it doesn’t guarantee but it improves their chances of of becoming citizens it’s somewhat of a progressive
1:26:14idea I think you know because here you are taking at that particular ceremony there were over a hundred uh men and
1:26:21women of of all colors in in and face I’m sure um but they all took the oath
1:26:28they all had the American flag on their shoulder they had been chasing the Taliban up and down that Province um you
1:26:34know in combat so um you know I I it just struck me you know when you think
1:26:40about that the quote You Know Jack Kennedy’s quote asked not what your
1:26:45country can do for you ask what you can do for your country it seemed like this group anyway this group of of of young
1:26:53men and women in uniform they wanted to be US citizens for all the right reasons all the right
1:27:00reasons and I and I actually think that having spent time with a couple of those rifle platoon um that sort of that that
1:27:09experience and and some of them you know they were in in mixed units so you know they it wasn’t just all one one group
1:27:16but uh a lot of you know native born uh American citizen soldiers serving right
1:27:22beside them there seem to be high levels of of camaraderie um in a in a really
1:27:29dangerous environment so they were they were pretty tight as far as I could see and general said
1:27:36Julie even though that’s somewhat of a progressive idea is that is that something that you think promotes uh
1:27:44strength in the military or is that a progressive idea that you think might deteriorate in in the long term because
1:27:50they are they are they were non citizens up to that point immigrants in our military have been one of our great
1:27:55strength one of our great superpowers we spoke over a hundred languages in World War I we have had immigrants fight in
1:28:01every war we’ve ever had and it’s it’s one of the things that we do better than any other army or military in the world
1:28:07I hope that we can get more of them in because they serve their Nation greatly and become great Americans Mr
1:28:15loimer thank you on its face I don’t disagree with that it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll perform in
1:28:21any given job they’re put in that’s true for any American and true of anyone that joins in uniform yeah thank you Mr TBO
1:28:28Mr Lynch I wholeheartedly accept the you know these Brave Americans who have served you know coming into the military
1:28:35as immigrants I would make a distinction between some policies that are suggested to uh bring illegal immigrants into
1:28:43service but they they are good American they’re good members of the military because they’re good members of the military not because of the color their
1:28:50skin or because they’re immigrants right I I I I should have added there there is a requirement I had talked to the the
1:28:56officers in charge there is a requirement that they have sort of a clean bill of health that they they can’t you know uh they can’t join the
1:29:03military to escape you know Justice or anything like that so um but uh that’s
1:29:09all I got Mr chairman I’ll yeld back thank you thank you much Mr
1:29:16sessions Mr chairman thank you very much uh this hearing today is being conducted
1:29:23by the National Security the border and Foreign Affairs to examine how
1:29:28Progressive ideologies affect military redness there was no conclusion that was
1:29:35drawn we’re asking you and I want to thank all each of you for your service
1:29:41to our country I find all three of you exceptionally well not only prepared and
1:29:47well read but able to defend your positions
1:29:52I uh as a boy was am an eagle scout and have
1:29:59stayed very active in scouting and we have a saying that says something like
1:30:04leave your campsite better than the way you found it each of you have served in the
1:30:12military and our and I’m a Conservative Republican from Texas you could figure
1:30:18that out by my voice but we are concerned about the
1:30:24things that we have heard today including lethality the number of people who come
1:30:30and go in the military the reason why this Administration has taken the position it has up to an including one
1:30:37of my nephews who is an Army Ranger who uh was not willing to accept
1:30:43the uh covid shot because of his age and the medical
1:30:50feedback can you please please tell me are we leaving our campsite better than
1:30:56the way we found it any of you Mr sessions what we know in the last
1:31:03two years is that every branch of the military except the Marine Corps has missed their recruiting goals by a lot
1:31:09for the first time in the all volunteer Force since Vietnam uh there’s more and
1:31:14more evidence that it’s due to the uh inep of a political crisis a
1:31:19politization of the military and and the confidence that that gives every American to join a military that is
1:31:27dedicated to American interests and not partisan objectives and I I think that’s
1:31:32an indication that things are in fact getting worse and you maybe maybe we still are the best military in the world
1:31:39but let’s not wait until we’re not to change things well that’s right that’s that leave your campsite better than you
1:31:44found it sir Commander yeah uh uh Congressman General I I’m so proud to
1:31:50serve for 36 years in the Army I wouldn’t have stayed if it hadn’t been that way I have served with armies throughout the world and it is not even
1:31:57close how much better equipped better LED better man uh with better political leadership we are than any other army in
1:32:03the world so I would tell you that over the last my career that the Army is in better shape now than it’s ever been and
1:32:10it’s because of the people that serve and the leaders that are there yes sir but that’s not the question the question is are we leaving our campsite better
1:32:18for the future if we’re not meeting our goals of retention of having people stay
1:32:24in if we’re having to pay extravagant amounts of money for people to talk them into stain the question was not about
1:32:30your service the question is your knowledge of the service are we leaving our campsite better than what we found
1:32:38and Congressman I would say that last in 2022 the Army uh recruited 45,000 in
1:32:432023 it was 55,000 we still have people in the uh in the pipeline coming in so
1:32:50the the task force of army recruiting did a great job of of of fixing many of those problems and it looks like it’s on
1:32:56the upswing rather than the downswing okay thank you I did ask for your professional expertise and you gave me a
1:33:02solid answer Commander thank you Congressman I recently read that pilot bonuses in our
1:33:08Air Force are up to $600,000 me too and uh that’s uh more than double what it was when I was
1:33:15flying a15s 10 years ago and a question I have is and I talked to Pilots about
1:33:21this is why is it that they would choose despite such an increase in the in the
1:33:27in the incentive bonus to leave go fly with the airlines separate either go into retirement or separate early
1:33:33without the retirement and I’ve heard responses like well we heard the Air Force spokesperson say we’d like to
1:33:40reduce the number of white pilots from 85% to 67.5% so my question is is that
1:33:45not a quota it would be U Mr thank you very much gentlemen Mr chairman I’d like to
1:33:51add to uh the record here Air Force goes on diversity Equity inclusion hiring
1:33:58spree top pays up to $183,500 I’d like to enter that into the
1:34:03record I appreciate all three of you for your service may God be with you and
1:34:09thank you for keeping us one nation under God I yield back my time Mr chairman
1:34:16thank you Miss mace thank you Mr chairman and thank you to our Witnesses this morning for your
1:34:22service to our country and for being here and spending some time with us today um every time a colleague of mine
1:34:28on the other side of the io doesn’t want to have an ideological discussion or discussion of real policy that makes
1:34:33real differences in the lives of the men and women in our country whether they’re serving our nation or otherwise I just invoke the word Trump it’s just Trump
1:34:40Trump trump that’s all they can talk about and quite frankly I find it tiring and nauseating because we have a real
1:34:48opportunity here to make a difference in the lives of of every American and especially for those that are literally
1:34:55putting their lives on the line to serve our country and um you know I’m one of
1:35:01the only Republicans up here on the hill who has talked about roie Wade who has
1:35:07talked about finding common ground who has talked about moderating on abortion
1:35:12and finding out where both sides can find agreement and there’s so much where we can find agreement on but I have yet
1:35:19to find one Democrat who’s willing to work with me on the issue of abortion and finding common ground and the minute
1:35:26you ask them what their limits are on abortion they won’t answer the question they flee the room they get the heck out of the way because they don’t want to
1:35:32answer the question because the left often has absolutely no limits on abortion that’s a travesty here today
1:35:38too um and shouldn’t really be the part point of the conversation because unfortunately the policies of this
1:35:45Administration uh you know the results speak for themselves recruiting is down retention is down morale is down while
1:35:52demonizing the military and our veterans is up and I remember when I was graduating from The Citadel a long time
1:35:58ago 25 years ago uh my own father’s concerns about the military we didn’t
1:36:04have the word woke back then but he saw what was changing he spent 28 years in the United States Army he is the most
1:36:11decorated living graduate The Citadel has ever seen in its history and I
1:36:17remember the conversations we would have and how much the military had changed in 25 years it’s way off Bas now with u
1:36:25some of the policies we’re seeing particularly with this Administration and and so you know the unit United States military has long been held as to
1:36:31the American public as the most respected and trusted institutions of our country and rightfully so it’s
1:36:37revered the standing exists because they’ve remained Above The Fray of partisan politics but politics has now
1:36:42gotten into our military and we’ve seen the Dem demonization of our active duty military and our veterans and so I I
1:36:50find this conversation deeply disappointing because as was mentioned earlier I Believe by Mr L about
1:36:55lethality and why qualifications actually matter because when you’re in the trenches when you’re at in war um it
1:37:03doesn’t matter what you look like um so my first question is going to go to Mr ler talking about lethality you’ve been
1:37:11in the trenches you’ve been in war you’ve been in combat theater does the color of your skin matter when you’re in
1:37:17the trenches when you’re in combat the answer is no it doesn’t matter and we’ve sometimes joked in
1:37:24veteran circles that the last thing that our active duty troops currently wearing the uniform say when they’re getting
1:37:30deployed downrange to the desert or to Eastern Europe as gez I wish I had another diversity equity and inclusion
1:37:35training before hitting the road does gender matter when you’re in war when you’re in combat when you’re in battle
1:37:41uh no I’d say no again but it also depends on strength and depends on your profession and I have no problem saying
1:37:46that that’s why that’s why we have standards in place does sexual orientation matter if you’re I say no it
1:37:53does not incidentally matter but if it becomes a matter of activist political
1:37:59orientation then it could influence the military workplace um I don’t think anyone believes having people from
1:38:04diverse backgrounds in the military is a bad thing I haven’t heard any of that today I think everybody in the country
1:38:09would welcome diversity no matter what industry they’re in can you explain specifically how what we’re seeing in
1:38:15terms of Dei program say that goes far beyond that Mr LM
1:38:23you mentioned the issue that Trump’s name is
1:38:28invoked as a talking point an easy goto talking not talk about the issues policy
1:38:34and I I’ll use that to answer your question congresswoman you know I had a base commander who in the leadup to an
1:38:43election threatened forfeiture of pay for all of the members of his base if he caught a whiff of Trump’s support in the
1:38:48leadup to the election in my view that’s Court marshal able it’s illegal it’s a violation of the Hatch Act and it was a
1:38:55direct express outcome of his ideological worldview he was a friendly guy he was loved and respected by a lot
1:39:03of people but he created a climate of fear and his top issues were and by the way Heritage Foundation and Congressman
1:39:09Waltz just recently did a report of the national independent panel of military service and Readiness and I’ve got
1:39:16feedback right here from people in the uniform active military members trust in the military is declining for the overt
1:39:23politicization of the military workplace transgender policies withdrawal from Afghanistan debacle reduction in
1:39:30physical fitness standards to even the playing field for diversity sake so all
1:39:35of the things that we’ve heard today aren’t necessarily the issues of progressivism that are hurting the
1:39:40military they’re in fact what our military members are saying are the issues for which they’re losing their
1:39:46trust in their senior leaders so when they hear a mark Milly say well I want to learn about white rage you at least
1:39:51get half of the force turning shutting off and losing trust in their military leadership now he was chairman of the
1:39:57Joint Chiefs when he said it when the Secretary of Defense says things or issues of policy memorandum saying that
1:40:03it was a Supreme Court decision that’s hurting our recruiting and Readiness when they themselves have been speaking up for two years saying no no no no
1:40:08that’s not the reason we don’t want to stay in the service then then there’s a divide that takes place and it’s that
1:40:15divide that I I think we’ve been here invited here to talk about and and so
1:40:20that’s that’s my answer to that question I think that’s at the heart of the matter is that ideology divides it’s always divided and uh none of the panel
1:40:29members up here seem to have any issue with the idea of naturally occurring diversity which has been a beautiful and
1:40:34lovely part both of Nature and of and of the blessing of the United States of America we are naturally a diverse group
1:40:41of people and it’s because we have the freedom to think and speak clearly and share those views and ideology also
1:40:47shuts that down too and it’s an enforced equality of thought of expression uh
1:40:53it’s discriminatory thank you Mr chairman I’ll yield back thank you representative
1:41:01Turner thank you Mr chairman I appreciate it since stepping into the Oval Office President Biden and his
1:41:08administration have pushed their political agenda on our men and women in uniform this is completely unacceptable
1:41:14when top defense officials allow politically driven priorities to affect military readiness the dod is failing at
1:41:22its job and making us vulnerable on a global stage our service members sacrifice so much to protect and defend
1:41:29our country they deserve better than to be treated as a social engineering experiment by the left over the past
1:41:36couple of years concepts of diversity equity and inclusion have pervaded our country’s institutions even causing
1:41:42presidents of what were previously this country’s most esteemed universities to believe that they have the political
1:41:48cover to defend calls for genocide curriculum centered on critical race Theory and Dei Concepts teaches students
1:41:56more about their differences than their similarities and shared values which runs counter to the core ethos of our
1:42:03armed forces the department of defense’s mission statement and number one objective must always be to provide
1:42:10combat credible military forces needed to deter war and protect the nation
1:42:15security the most pressing problem today for Force Readiness is the ongoing struggle with recruitment and pushing
1:42:22partisan Politics on our Armed Forces is one way to ensure we continue moving the
1:42:28wrong direction on this issue we must ensure that our military leadership is more focused on the threat from our
1:42:35greatest adversaries than enforcing a politically correct divisive ideology
1:42:40that is counterproductive to maintaining a cohesive military unit I look forward to working with my colleagues on this
1:42:47committee to hold the administration accountable particularly on issues that jeopardize our national
1:42:53security Mr TBO in 2021 a professor of political science at the US Air Force
1:42:59Academy published an oped in the Washington Post defending the teaching of critical race Theory and arguing that
1:43:05it is productive for members of the military to understand a fuller let’s quote understand a fuller version of
1:43:12American History why do you disagree with that sentiment or what would you say in response to
1:43:18it I don’t know the specific case Congressman but my issue is when
1:43:23training in the military focuses on what someone believes or who they might be because of their assumed background
1:43:30based on the color of their skin that engenders really complicated and
1:43:35divisive uh assumptions in a unit that needs to survive based on cohesion and so if if I’m if I receive a training
1:43:42that says oh you’re a white man and which means you have blind spots on race or sex that means a soldier or an Airman
1:43:50joins a unit with the presumption of distrust already built into their their
1:43:55DNA but I I would say you know it should not be surprising that the Air Force Academy is teaching that when they
1:44:01decide their admissions classes based on race-based percentiles it’s it’s not
1:44:07called the quota but in effect those are quotas that are as harmful as any training the Air Force promotes thank
1:44:15you Mr ler along with your testimony you submitted dozens upon dozens of quotes
1:44:20from Men and women who had retired from the military those quotes are critical of the current woke culture of the
1:44:25military and many former military service members cite Dei efforts and wokeism in the military as part of their
1:44:32motivation to get out why do you believe that that Dei policies have been a cause for reduced recruitment over the past
1:44:38couple of years yeah the quotes that I submitted in exhibit one uh for the record uh
1:44:44there were approximately a thousand unsolicited quotations of feedback from
1:44:50our service members uh that are in that document and the professor at the Air Force Academy that you’re referring to
1:44:56is Lyn Chandler Garcia who essentially bragged about teaching critical race Theory and this is my area of expertise
1:45:02and the reason it’s so divisive is because it was literally this is not just figure of speech literally created
1:45:10by Marxist ideologues with the specific purpose of dividing people into groups
1:45:17for the purpose of fomenting cultural revolution period period full stop I’ll back that up 100%
1:45:23all day I studied it for years I studied at DOD strategy schools I studied Marxist cultural revolutions around the
1:45:29world and it looks and smells the same everywhere you go and so it wasn’t surprising to
1:45:35me to see the same base commander who was threatening forfeiture of pay if he
1:45:41caught a whiff of trump support that he said no one will stand in the way of the black lives matter movement at my base
1:45:47what’s interesting and sad about it is that it was okay to show a support
1:45:53ideologically for the movement but not to criticize the same movement without
1:45:58being accused of political partisanship and this is how this goes it’s politically partisan if you
1:46:04disagree with the party line it is not politically partisan if you tow the party line that’s why it’s divisive
1:46:12thank you for your answer and I want to thank all three of you for being here and for your service I yield back Mr
1:46:19chairman Mr Mr Fallon thank you Mr chairman and thank
1:46:26you for all the witnesses for taking your time um a veteran myself U and I apologize Air Force uh for four
1:46:32years I found it interesting because when you live something directly that
1:46:37was 30 years ago and uh dare I say now that we’re in 2024 Mr chairman almost 35
1:46:42years ago and one of the first things they did when we in process as I was a
1:46:47young second Lieutenant 22 years old was they told told us about how the military works and there’s zero tolerance for
1:46:54isms there will not be sexism in the military there will not be racism in the military now of course when you have an
1:47:00organization of at the time almost two million you’re going to have your outliers but it was the extreme
1:47:05exception and absolutely not the rule and they told us that if you you participate in any of these things you
1:47:11will be separated from the military because you are not someone that can function in a cohesive unit in a in a in
1:47:18the branch of the service and I absolutely loved that because contrary to so many people that Fant division in
1:47:25this uh uh chamber that’s how my parents raised us that’s the Majesty of living
1:47:31in the 20th and now 21st century in America it is an extreme racism is a diminishing phenomena every day does it
1:47:37exist of course but it’s diminishing uh every day so I found it interesting when I got this job in January 21 that there
1:47:44was a focus in the new Administration on white extremism U political extremism
1:47:49particularly White Supremacy that kind of movement in the military so I have a uh Mr is it Sig
1:47:55sigil sigil yes sir you’re great okay great name and challenging one so it’s challenging for it’s a little scary um
1:48:04do you believe that white extremism is an issue and a problem let’s say pervasive problem in the military today
1:48:11it’s been several years since I’ve out I really don’t know Congress okay uh well this Administration clearly did because
1:48:17they they had a standown where the entire military obviously in stages stood down to get I think it was 4 hours
1:48:24of training on the dangers of White extremism and I found that interesting
1:48:30because then I just like to live in data in the real world so I asked the
1:48:35different branches of the service uh the commanding officers the fourstar generals how many people in that last
1:48:41fiscal year were separated due to White extremist extremist activity and then the United States Army with at the time
1:48:491.1 million million active reserve and National Guardsmen 1.1 million that
1:48:55number was nine nine so not quite one in a million but damn near close in the
1:49:01United States Marine Corps reservists and active duty of I think it was 222,000 at the time that number was four
1:49:10four out of almost a quarter of a million and the Navy and Air Force were
1:49:16progressingly finally came forward and said yes our numbers would be commiserate with those numbers so single
1:49:21digits and then when you factor in the man- hour’s loss when you stand down for four hours and talk about an issue that’s not a pervasive issue you’re
1:49:28talking hundreds of millions of dollars to satisfy a political objective with
1:49:34the United States military and then you know we talk about diversity is our strength and this and that I think merits our strength and I think uh as a
1:49:43obviously an un anab bash conservative that success Talent ability skill comes
1:49:48in all shapes sizes and Shades that’s what I have seen in my experience their Geniuses and their pigmentation is
1:49:55completely IMM material to what’s on their mind and their education and their drive and uh their pitality and ability
1:50:01so Merit should be first because I think that we would agree we have a great panel here uh uh Colonel L would you
1:50:08agree that the Chinese military is a grave threat to not only this country but really freedom and liberty in the
1:50:13world yes I agree with that both as a foreign adversary and and also as an information facilitator domestically
1:50:21here in this country and Mr tiido yes sir Mr sigil yes okay so we’re
1:50:28all in agreement I think most members of Congress would agree there 435 in this chamber uh probably get to 433 there’s
1:50:34always a couple outliers as we as we know but what I find interesting about that is is the Chinese military diverse
1:50:40ethnically no because diversity has nothing to do with military strength
1:50:46it’s about Merit and I think that in this country we are the mosters first major country in the world and I think that’s wonderful and beautiful and uh
1:50:53but we need to focus more on Merit and the best because we see we hear this so much here uh these standards of well we
1:51:01need diversity Equity inclusion things of that nature which again Merit that will all sort itself out because if
1:51:07anybody in this room needed lifesaving brain surgery tomorrow you know what
1:51:13your criteria would be the best you wouldn’t give a rat’s ass what
1:51:18nationality this person was what ethnicity what gender what religion what God they worship none of it who is the
1:51:25best surgeon in the world to preserve my life so I can live it for my family my kids and my country want to thank the
1:51:31witnesses again thank you Mr chairman for this great topic and I yield back thank you good point um Mr
1:51:39walls thank you Mr chairman um General seagull
1:51:46seel whatever you want Congressman I’m I’m good thank you seel sigil sigil all
1:51:51right start with you I think you would well know that um I was just reviewing joint Pub 3.0 joint operations a
1:51:58foundation of joint operations in the military and nowhere in there is does it
1:52:04call for diversity of command does call for unity of command and it talks a lot
1:52:10about unit morale and and the need for Unity within our
1:52:17military units um you test testified earlier that you haven’t seen Marxism
1:52:23critical race Theory you don’t know where it is in the military or where it is at West Point is
1:52:30that accurate characterization I I had not heard of it when I was at West Point uh teaching there for two decades I had
1:52:36not heard of it until it became a national issue when did you leave West Point uh I stopped teaching there in
1:52:422019 okay um are you so you’re unaware then that critical race Theory 101 is
1:52:48part of the West Point curriculum critical according to and I’d like to enter into the I’m quite sure what that
1:52:54you you’re saying that there’s a department of critical RAC no there is the it’s part of the syllabus excuse me the part of the syllabus for what
1:53:00Congressman uh for one of the classes at West Point well no I I think that that’s absolutely true that for one class for
1:53:07one elective it certainly could be you agre with the lecture um understanding
1:53:12your whiteness and white rage taught by Dr Carol Anderson of Emory University that that should be taught at West Point
1:53:18uh I’m not familiar with that lecture but but I the thing essentially the the theme is that that uh white people are
1:53:26in Rage not 100 years ago not 40 years ago which you’re talking about the 60s
1:53:31and 70s today white Cadets white people are enraged by black advancement was I
1:53:37think Congressman the great thing about education is that you can get a variety of different perspectives uh it’s not
1:53:42training which is what some of my colleagues have talked about I’m talking about education you want to hear the broadest representation of every
1:53:49viewpoint do you understand I know this is this is the very clever approach of
1:53:55the left to conflate history with current day training so would you agree
1:54:00that critical race theory is a foundation for Dei not that I not no I would not I I I
1:54:07don’t know that to be true Dei it goes back to equal opportunity in the early part of the of the 1970s it’s still just
1:54:14a part of what equal opportunity I would say What’s the difference in equity and equality equal opportunity which is so
1:54:22right now the Director of National Intelligence how infused this ideology has become across our national security
1:54:28apparatus the Director of National Intelligence has an office for Equal Opportunity which for the record I fully
1:54:34agree with I want every American race religion social economic background that have an equal opportunity to serve they
1:54:40also have an office of Dei including Equity what’s the difference in equity
1:54:46well I would say that when this started as a historian it started as a defense race relation Institute and then became
1:54:51the defense equal opportun what the difference in equity and equality equal opportunity to serve an equity which is
1:54:59an equal outcome for all I I would again say that the Equal Opportunity which at
1:55:04least at West Point when I was there and started the Dei program OPP but the the Equal Opportunity program falls under
1:55:09the Dei at West Point what’s equity I I don’t know what Congressman you’re here
1:55:14as an expert today the Democratic witness diversity equity and inclusion is part of is there’s a Dei office in
1:55:21the Pentagon a chief there’s Dei in many many of you don’t know what Equity you
1:55:27can’t testify to what Equity means well I’ll tell you since you don’t know thank you Congressman it is equal outcomes for
1:55:33all which is a Hallmark of Marxism Dei is Marxist based as is
1:55:41critical race Theory but let’s let’s progress since I mean apparently the the expert doesn’t know what Equity is in
1:55:47Dei I have here I’d like to interfer for the record a class composition with racial goals for West Point you just
1:55:54testified you were under oath you were in the admissions office I I was there I wasn’t in the admissions office I was on the admissions committee for one year
1:56:01and I know that there were no quotas is what I said Congressman so we’re going to parse over
1:56:06quotas and goals this is from the superintendent and here’s the goals and it has African-Americans Hispanics
1:56:13Asians women with percentages we have red here for when they missed those
1:56:19goals that’s as I said Congressman there are no quotas on when I was on the
1:56:25admissions committee there were no quot also there is also Congressman the ability to have athletes on there so
1:56:31there are many other the goals on there as I’m sure you’ve seen on on what are the other and if you could go read all
1:56:37of those goals it would tell you how how deep that is and in fact one of the largest number of of people that are um
1:56:46recruited at West Point are athletes 25% here’s the problem problem when you have a an an Indian Elite institution when
1:56:53you say and your directive is to advance one group based on the skin color you
1:56:59have to take those slots from another group based on their skin color a zero
1:57:05sum but the largest of those groups is the athletes it’s a zero sum oh the
1:57:11athletes get broken down by their skin color in this chart 25% in this chart
1:57:17that you just said doesn’t exist but let’s continue this is my time here just to go how systemwide Mr chairman here’s
1:57:23a memorandum from the secretary of the Air Force with white black
1:57:29Asian American Indian I mean I think my wife who’s an army veteran who was Arab
1:57:35she does have a place I guess in this chart my son who’s now multi-racial I
1:57:41don’t know if he would have a probably looks white to most people I don’t know that he would have a place but here you
1:57:47have current percentages and a mandate to increase those percentages you have to then take those slots whether they’re
1:57:55pilot slots or whatever from someone else based on ethnicity this is from
1:58:03signed by the now chairman of the joint Chief CQ Brown signed by the secretary of the Air Force with a
1:58:09mandate with a mandate I’m sorry oh I’m sorry excuse me with a
1:58:14mandate you are directed to develop Mr chairman would you mind you
1:58:20I I’ll yield him all of my time I’ll yield him all of my time chairman if it’s okay if I could have that’s okay I
1:58:26
just want to get this on the record because I think we’ve had some very misleading testimony today with the Mandate you are directed to develop a
1:58:32Dei plan within 30 days and report back
1:58:38
annually based on percentages this is illegal it’s wrong and it’s a divisive
1:58:43
finally I just want to ask as a matter here are some of the key proponents
1:58:50
of CRT um which basically says you to be
1:58:56
less white is to be less racially oppressive to be white no member of
1:59:02
society is innocent B what these authors say is that if you’re white you are
1:59:09
incapable of not being racist that in and of itself is racist sir and by the
1:59:17
way these were lecturers at the Air Force Academy that is divisive and it’s wrong
1:59:24
and it’s destructive and finally Mr chairman thank you for your Indulgence we have data that shows as Mr L has has
1:59:34
uh has testified to 62% of active duty military
1:59:40
members are seeing a politicized military 65% will recommend their child
1:59:46
not joined and now we’re in a recruiting crisis this is why these hearings are so
1:59:51
necessary uh and you are right Mr seil in that Congress Drives change this
1:59:58
Congress has banned critical race theory in the military and this defense Bill we have eliminated the hiring of divisive
2:00:04
Dei bureaucrats we are going to drive this change to get our military back to a meritocracy with equal opportunity for
2:00:12all you cannot fight racism with more racism and you have to have data Final
2:00:19
question Mr chairman do you General seel have any data that shows that a more or
2:00:25less diverse submarine bomber Brigade is more lethal or less lethal
2:00:32
let’s go with a submarine crew Congressman I know that the submarines lethality comes with its nuclear weapons
2:00:37
we have the most lethal I’m talking about the crew you have to have people to operate it right and I would go back to my area of expertise which is in the
2:00:43
early 1970s when we did not have that lethality then and the reason that we
2:00:49
didn’t have that lethality then is because we did not have policies that allowed us to have that we’re now 50
2:00:55
years beyond that and the reason that we were so good we’ve had those policies those policies have made us as successful as we are right now by
2:01:02
percentage a more or less let’s say Bomber Crew let’s say Brigade whether
2:01:08
it’s 50% black 10% black 30% Jewish any of these societal factors data that
2:01:16
drives Readiness I would say that the only we can have an equal a force that is ready and able is to recruit that
2:01:23
force and if we can’t recruit that force from the entire uh uh the entire country
2:01:28
and have leadership that reflects that then we are not going to be a successful military but we are a successful
2:01:33
military in part because some of these policies allow us to recruit and retain the greatest Americans in the country
2:01:40
record that there is no actual data thank you Mr chairman okay thank you much I guess we
2:01:47
have a couple minutes for Mr comr left I have two more minutes if you want to go ahead thank you Mr chairman I
2:01:55
I go ahead take it Mr chairman go ahead you’re the expert go ahead let’s go with
2:02:00
uh just for the record with uh General Bert here um and how politization is
2:02:05
infusing our military this is General Bert from your service uh Mr L and i’
2:02:11
I’d like you to comment on this who stated publicly at a forum uh that she
2:02:16
would um she is compelled to consider different candidates who are
2:02:22
perhaps less qualified uh if they do if they disagree
2:02:27
with State law can you talk about the implications of Civilian oversight of the military if we have a three- Star
2:02:33
General active duty in front of a large crowd live streamed talking about
2:02:39
sending less qualified people to certain States because of their because of their state laws and should the military now
2:02:45
be able to oine for example this is the Pand door is box uh that is being opened
2:02:52
that if maybe I don’t like the Second Amendment laws or the gun or the gun restriction laws in a certain location
2:02:59
that I should now be able to self- select with the military to go to a different place thank you Congressman one of the
2:03:06
uh points that uh General sigil nailed it made earlier was that he was unaware
2:03:13
of the many hundreds of senior military leaders uh ever saying anything a of um
2:03:19
Senator tuberville’s hold on on confirmations and and I suppose
2:03:24
generally speaking that’s fair enough but during that same time period as when uh General Deanna Bert made the comments
2:03:30
you’re referring to and it was overtly political and I’ll tell you from my own experience while in the space force is
2:03:37
that the entire time I was there this is one of the respected leaders in the space force to whom people looked
2:03:44
trusted as a war fighter because she was talented as a war fighter but the moment you make a statement like that you lose
2:03:50
trust confidence of the vast majority of people under your command thank you Mr
2:03:56
chairman okay thanks much Mr Comer’s waved his or gave all
2:04:03
his time to Mr Waltz so time has come here we got a first my official in
2:04:10
closing we want to thank our Witnesses for their testimony and now to ranking member Garcia for his closing remarks
2:04:17
thank you Mr chair and I want to just uh end this hearing with some of the comments I made earlier and just again
2:04:23
uh show I’m just dismayed and disappointed that we are choosing to spend our time this way I do thank our Witnesses but I think we do a quick
2:04:30
brief summary of what we’ve already heard um one a member chose to use this time to argue that members of right-wing
2:04:35
militia should serve in our armed services that’s pretty outrageous a witness Mr L uh called the slogan black
2:04:43
lives matter a monument to Marxism which is also pretty outrageous uh the same witness claim claim that he speaks for
2:04:49
all service members and I just want to note for the record having talked to many service members uh before my time
2:04:55
in Congress and today I can say with certainty that he does not speak for all service members particularly on issues
2:05:00
of diversity um and inclusion uh we had uh comparison of SLO of also um that
2:05:07
slogan to military bases named after people who took up arms to destroy our nation to preserve slavery was discussed
2:05:12
members decided to Rel to relitigate the Vietnam War which was interesting we heard antix propaganda which continues
2:05:19
to cost lives in this country we heard Cherry Picked antidotes from a right-wing ideologue who personally and
2:05:24
basicly attacked members of this committee speaking to one of our Witnesses the idea that our work today
2:05:29
uphold upholds National Security is in my opinion a joke and crazy and general
2:05:34
I do want to thank you once again for your clear and insightful testimony here are some of the facts we need to harness
2:05:39
the talents of every American especially in a difficult recruiting environment that means we need a climate that
2:05:45
welcomes people of all backgrounds that actively combats big and extremism and then makes all service members uh ensure
2:05:52
that they are protected and supported I just want to say finally that the arguments being made by two of our
2:05:58
Witnesses and some of the majority um as a reminder those AR arguments have already lost we are in a diverse
2:06:04
military today those are arguments of the past no matter how many times you come forward write a book give testimony
2:06:13or try to move us backwards uh you have failed the Army is a diverse our
2:06:19
military is diverse and the United States will continue to be a place that that um welcomes diversity inclusion and
2:06:26
uh that diversity is here to stay and with that I yield back okay um like to thank everyone for
2:06:34
being here for today’s committee uh first of all I’d like to thank Mr Perry for pointing out that our military did
2:06:41
not lose the war in Vietnam just a minor Point uh it was lost when Congress
2:06:47
stopped giving Aid to South Vietnam but our military never did a tremendous job
2:06:54
um to me there’s a very important committee and a very important hearing because our military is uh has way too
2:07:03
many people or way too much focused on race and when they talk about diversity they’re not talking about who is
2:07:10
musically inclined or who is tall or who came from North Dakota they’re talking about race um the the uh head of the new
2:07:18Joint Chiefs has said that their goal should be 42% white officers which means in other words that if you’re the most
2:07:25
qualified person but you’re a white guy you’re going to have a tough a tough time a tougher road to hold uh uh Dei is
2:07:34
a Marxist ideology and the reason it’s Marxist is they want to destroy America and they want to divide America and one
2:07:41
way to divide America is to have everybody not identify as say Mr lay or
2:07:48
himself self they want him to identify I didn’t even know what your ethnic background is uh Mr L Meer comma
2:07:54
Hispanic American or Mr L Meer comma Native American and and the marxists
2:08:00
realize that once we get that in America where everybody thinks every election or every promotion is a battle between
2:08:07
ethnic groups we have destroyed America and that is where we are going uh I I I
2:08:13
wish I would have brought up earlier like I said the who new head of the joint Chief says a goal should be 42%
2:08:20
white officers in other words she’s outright saying that we are going to discriminate against you because you’re
2:08:25
a white guy she’s outright saying that the person who gets the promotion is not necessarily going to be the best person
2:08:31
for the job and inevitably it’s going to create divisions within the military because it it it it causes people to
2:08:40
say I should be promoted because of my background furthermore this diversity
2:08:45
thing I suppose in some ways diversity is okay okay but in other ways I don’t
2:08:51
see what it has to do with anything okay if we have two people applying for the
2:08:56
the Air Force Academy who both grew up in folac Wisconsin lived on the same block both played on the football team
2:09:03
both played saxophone in the in the in the school band uh but one of them has a
2:09:10
a a Hispanic grandfather well all of a sudden in order to increase diversity
2:09:16
that’s the guy who’s got to be promoted first with the idea that they have diverse backgrounds it would bring
2:09:21
something different to the military because one guy happened to have a grandfather
2:09:27
who was born in Mexico a 100 years ago is is preposterous but that is the
2:09:33
ideology that is being pushed today and will inevitably destroy the military and will inevitably destroy America so uh um
2:09:43
I’d like to thank you three folks for being here I do not believe that forever
2:09:49
I sure hope Mr Garcia is not right forever we’re in a position in which we
2:09:54
Define people by where their great-grandparents come from and believe
2:10:00
that if my this is not true but if my grandfather was from Mexico I don’t
2:10:05
speak Spanish I never been in Mexico in my life but somehow therefore I have a unique Viewpoint that I have to be
2:10:12
promoted against other people in the military that’s ridiculous and it’s scary and it’s absurd and I wish more
2:10:19
people would say it and I wish they’d call out people on what exactly they mean by by diversity how how because I
2:10:28
have an ancestor born in Thailand or something it it it makes me a better Sergeant it’s
2:10:37
just absurd but that’s what that’s the ridiculous ideology that’s taken over America okay now uh uh with uh with that
2:10:44
and without objection all members have five legislative days within which to submit materials and additional written
2:10:49
questions for the witnesses which will be forwarded to the witnesses if they’re no further Business Without objection I
2:10:56
can’t believe that people think it matters where my ancestors come from when we
2:11:02
promote somebody but okay without objection the subcommittee stands adjourned thank you for all being here
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Last Updated on February 5, 2024 by Real KBrett