BAM! Senator Eric Schmitt talks about the harmful woke DEI agenda in the military, asks Pete Hegseth how he will fix this AND confirms that Hegseth will reinstate with back pay those kicked out of the military for not taking an experimental vaccine — plus receive an apology from the government. This is how it’s done, watch:
Transcript
Senator Eric Schmitt:
I also want to thank you for your clarity in articulating the vision you have for the Department of Defense in restoring an ethos, a warrior ethos, which is in stark contrast to the ethos we’ve seen in the last four years, which is of weakness and wokeness.
I want to drill down on a few things specifically in exactly how we’ve gotten to where we’ve gotten with recruiting and morale. DEI. There’s been a little bit of discussion about this, but for those watching at home, DEI is not about giving everybody opportunity, it is rooted in cultural Marxism. The idea that you pit the room, any room with oppressor versus oppressed.
It’s race essentialism and it is poison. It has no business whatsoever in our military. I think the American people have spoken loudly and clearly about this. They’re tired of this. They’re tired of woke ideology. And to my Democrat colleagues on the other side, if you haven’t picked up on that, you missed the plot, because that’s what November 5th partially was about.
And so let’s talk specifically about some of these Dei programs that have been funded. In our Academy, specifically the Air Force Academy, it was advised as disfavored language, to refer to your mom and dad as mom and dad. Okay. Dear Mom and Dad, I’m writing home. Don’t say that. That’s insane. We’re all just people. You can’t say that either.
And in an effort to police this in a 1984 Orwellian novel, there was actually an eyes and ears program to rat on your fellow students who might say mom and dad or just say, in a tough situation, you know what? We’re all just people–can’t say that. This wasn’t limited, by the way, to our academies. The secretary of the Air Force our current secretary of the Air Force, in a memo from August of 2022, thought we had too many white officers, advocated for quotas.
And if you crunched the numbers, that meant that 5800 white officers who’ve worked really hard should be fired. In the United States of America. I don’t know how we got here. And by the way, the Air Force isn’t alone here, the Navy sort of touted a drag queen influencer. This stuff is insane. And people wonder why recruiting has dropped off.
And let me just go through a few numbers that I want to get your comments on how we fix this, because it’s gone completely off the rails. In 2022, the Army missed their recruiting goal of 60,000 soldiers by over 15,000. In 2023, the Navy missed their recruiting goals by over 7000. In 2022, the Air Force could not only couldn’t meet their numbers, even though they lowered their standards.
They’ve lowered their standards to meet numbers they still can’t get to. Mr. Hegseth, we got to fix this. I think what you’ve demonstrated today is that you have your talent in the ability, in the desire to fix it. How are you going to fix it?
Pete Hegseth:
Well, Senator, thank you for the question. First and foremost, up front, you have to tear out DEI and CRT initiatives root and branch out of institutions, and then you have to put in Army, Navy and Air Force secretaries and others, civilian positions at the helm who are committed to the same priorities that the President of the United States is and, if confirmed, the Secretary of Defense will be.
Send a clear message that this is not a time for equity. Equity is a very different word than equality. Equality is the bedrock of our military: men and women, duty positions, in uniform, black, white — doesn’t matter. We treat you equally based on who you are in the image of God as an individual.
And we all get the same bad haircuts. You’re not an individual. You’re part of a group. Equity prescribes some sort of an outcome based on differing attributes that we have that divide us. What skin color are you? What gender are you? And that infuse that into institutions which manifest in things like quotas, formal or informal, which does what to morale, sends it in the tubes, and it makes people feel like they’re being judged by something other than how good they are at their job, which is poisonous inside institution.
Senator Schmitt:
So on top of this recruiting crisis, that wasn’t enough for this administration during the Covid hysteria and in their attempt to fire 100,000 people who work for bigger companies because they didn’t get the Covid shot or to mask five year olds, they decided also to make this a central plank in their policy at the Pentagon.
8000 well-trained — so we got a recruiting crisis — 8000 well-trained men and women were fired, were fired. Will you commit today, Mr. Hegseth, to recruit these folks back, to give them back pay and give them an apology from the United States government for how they were disrespected.
Pete Hegseth:
Senator, I will commit to this because the Commander in Chief has committed to this, that not only will they be reinstated, they will receive an apology, back pay and rank that they lost because they were forced out due to an experimental vaccine.
Senator Schmitt:
Thank you. And I have limited time, but I just want to say, for all the talk of experience and not coming from the same cocktail parties that permanent Washington is used to, you are a breath of fresh air. And again, if you weren’t paying attention to what this election was all about, it was about the disruptors versus the establishment and the American people have had enough of business as usual for the same people that we line up for these same jobs who give us the same results.
We need somebody who’s going to go in there and fight for innovation, fight for change. I think you’re that person, and I appreciate your willingness to sit here and listen to some of these undignified attacks. It’s ridiculous. Thank you.
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