Senator Ted Cruz made a forceful statement recently by bringing Lieutenant Levi Beaird to President Biden’s State of the Union address, as he’s one of the thousands of military service members who have been affected by the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates.
Despite overwhelming evidence that the vaccines do not prevent transmission or infection, the administration has enforced, or continues to enforce, requirements that coerce individuals to comply with indefensible policies. . . .
. . . .Despite future recruits and service members not being subject to such policies, those who have served or continue to serve are still facing severe consequences for non-compliance.
LT. Beaird is one of many in that exact situation. Senator Cruz took the opportunity to invite him to the State of the Union, ensuring that politicians in D.C. were forced to see a personal example of how these mandates have affected those serving their country.
OutKick spoke to Beaird and Senator Cruz on Wednesday about the mandates, the personal and professional consequences and the punitive desires behind such policies.
Lieutenant Beaird has an outstanding service record, with no reported problems or issues in the Navy. He also has impeccable qualifications, having received a master’s degree from Naval Postgraduate School in national security studies.
His education entitled him to receive a $105,000 retention bonus, paid out in installments. As a condition of his education, the Navy required him to spend three years as a department head. If he doesn’t complete that requirement, he’ll be forced to repay the entirety of the bonus as well as the cost of his degree.
LT. Beaird had and has every intention of carrying out his duty. Except the Navy won’t let him, all because he did not comply with the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate.
Beaird requested a religious exemption, citing his virtually lifelong Christian faith. Despite the Navy finding that his convictions were sincere, his request was denied. So Beaird appealed. Only to be denied again and they refused to tell him why.
“In both the initial denial and the appeal, they actually did not specify any specific reasons why,” Beaird said.
Once receiving that denial, Beaird immediately realized that it was likely the “beginning of the end” of his career.
He explained that he believes the military’s vaccine mandates were to give the appearance that they’d “done something,” rather than serving any specific purpose.
But those desires have far reaching consequences, financially and otherwise. Beyond the possibility that he could be forced to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars, Beaird explained how taxing it’s been on him and his family.
He described being “ostracized” by command personnel, as well as some of the community and even his peers. It’s been “lonely” and “devastating,” he said, and left him wondering what could happen next.
Seeing the Navy approve other medical exemptions, admit that his religious convictions were sincere and still deny his request was tough to take. “It crushed me,” Beaird concluded. . . . (read more on Outkick)
Ted Cruz Invites Unvaccinated Navy Lieutenant To Biden’s SOTU After He Was Punished For Refusing Jab (Epoch Times, 7 FEB 23)
Texas Senator Ted Cruz has officially invited an unvaccinated Navy Lieutenant to Biden’s joint Congress speech on Tuesday night after he was punished for refusing to get the jab.
Fort Worth native Lieutenant Levi Beaird will join Cruz at the speech in hopes to raise awareness of the 60,000 military members who refused to get the vaccine and were punished for their decision.
Cruz has been an advocate for those who faced consequences for refusing to get the vaccine. The Senator filed recently the Allowing Military Exemptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots Act as an addition to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2023.
In his filing, Cruz included language that helped defend service members for not getting the vaccine and were punished for making their own health decision.
“The disregard this administration has for our service members is unconscionable, in fact it borders on outright contempt,” Cruz said to the Epoch Times.
“My guest, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Levi Beaird, is a Surface Warfare Officer, and like so many others in our military, has had his livelihood threatened and faces serious retribution from this administration just for seeking an exemption from the COVID vaccine. Lieutenant Beaird is among the thousands of capable Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen and Marines this administration is eager to discharge and punish just for seeking an exemption. I’m proud to host him at the Capitol and I’m proud to fight for every service member battling this injustice,” Cruz continued in saying.. . . (read more)
Congressional Record, 7 FEB 23
CRUZ: I am committed to fighting for every soldier, every sailor, every airman, every marine, every coastguardsman who was wrongfully terminated or wrongfully demoted because of the COVID vaccine mandate. And I give my word: I am going to keep fighting for them until they see justice.
That is why tonight, we are going to be at the State of the Union Address on the other side of the Capitol, and my guest tonight for the State of the Union is LT Levi Beaird, a naval surface warfare officer. Lieutenant Beaird is a Texas resident and a top-rated officer. In March of 2022, he faced a separation board because he made the personal decision to decline to get the COVID vaccine.
But before the Biden administration could kick him out, a Federal judge entered an injunction preventing the Navy from terminating Lieutenant Beaird. However, the Navy is, right now, trying to recoup from him $75,000 that they already paid him in anticipation of Lieutenant Beaird’s becoming a department head because he wasn’t named a department head.
Well, the reason he wasn’t named a department head is because he made the personal decision not to get the COVID vaccine due to his own sincere religious objection.
I am proud to be welcoming Lieutenant Beaird to the State of the Union tonight. I hope that his being there will cause those in the media to tell his story because it really underscores how grotesquely unfair the Biden administration’s policies have been and how they punish those American heroes. So Lieutenant Beaird will be in the audience tonight as Joe Biden, no doubt, will congratulate himself and try to avoid accountability for the problems his administration has caused.
Forcing service members to get vaccinated will have ‘far-reaching’ implications: Lt. Levi Beaird
Naval officer Lt. Levi Beaird and the Counsel at First Liberty Institute, Danielle Runyan, discuss the COVID-19 vaccine mandate’s impact on service members on ‘Fox & Friends Weekend.’
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