During the Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing considering Gen. C.Q. Brown to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Missouri Senator Schmitt questioned him about the infamous memo the General signed saying there should be less white officers in the US Air Force and directing offices to develop a plan to implement the diversity goals.
Watch:
TRANSCRIPT
Sen. Eric Schmitt
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, General. Do we have too many white officers in the Air Force?
USAF General C.Q. Brown
Senator, what I really look at is the quality of all the officers that we have. And we look at the aspect of everyone who’s qualified meets the qualifications is promoted.
Sen. Eric Schmitt
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Well, I would agree with you, but that answers not consistent with your August 9 memo. In your August 9 memo, you said–that you signed on to– that there should be a reduction essentially, of about 9% of the white officers, that’s we have too many white officers.
And this is the real impact, I think, of this desire of the administration. I’m saddened to see this, in this memo, of this obsession with race-based politics being interjected into our military.
How did you come up with the percentage of 67.5% of the officers should be white, and how did you come up with 13% should be black. And how did you come up with 10% should be Asian. And how did you come up with 1.5% should be American Indian and Native Alaskan. How did you come up with 1% being Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. And how did you come up with 15% of our officers should be Hispanic or Latino?
USAF General C.Q. Brown
Senator, that memo is on application goals, not the actual makeup of the force. And those numbers are based on the demographics of the nation.
Sen. Eric Schmitt
Okay, well, all right, there’s 10% of our country is Asian American? So is that where you came up with it? Just a percentage of the population, essentially?
Because right now, the actual percentage . . . . this is a ridiculous conversation, to be perfectly honest, because why didn’t you come up with or are you going to come up with the percentage of the overall force?
Did you contemplate that of how many black Americans should be in the Air Force or how many Asian Americans should be in the Air Force? Did you contemplate the total force percentages?
USAF General C.Q. Brown
Senator, what we looked at was the aspect of providing opportunities for anybody who wants to serve this.
Sen. Eric Schmitt
Listen, if that were what was in this memo, I wouldn’t be asking you these questions. But we have in a memo signed by you that you think right now there are too many white officers. This is a blanket statement.
I could go down the line of questioning of which of the 5400 white officers that we have too many of should be fired, because that is the actual impact of all this.
I agree with you. Your story about wanting to be the best pilot in the Air Force regardless of race, that is what the military is supposed to be. It’s this great meritocracy. It’s why there’s uniforms and haircuts.
I’ve heard so many of my colleagues talk about infusing abortion politics into this. That is exactly what’s wrong.
This administration has infused abortion politics into our military, COVID politics into our military, DEI politics into our military, and it is a cancer on the best military in the history of the world.
Those men and women deserve better than this, this idea that they have to go through these struggle sessions with DEI training.
Because, trust me, I believe that we ought to have the broadest pool of applicants and get the best and the brightest, and we ought to be recruiting in various areas to make sure we have the best and the brightest from every community, regardless of your race or your gender or your ethnicity.
But that’s not what DEI is. DEI is an ideology based in cultural Marxism.
And somehow, some way, we ended up in a place where a general in the Air Force is advocating for racial quotas, whether it be by applicants or the number of officers or maybe the total unit.
And I just think that’s wrong. I think that’s the wrong approach.
You have had a distinguished career, and I thank you for your service. I just don’t know how we can continue to have leadership that advocates for this divisive policy.
I’ll ask you also, there have been 8500 military men and women fired because they chose not to get a vaccine.
If confirmed, what would you do to go out not just they can reapply and there’s a process to go out and recruit these folks back. What would you do to do that? What would you do to accomplish that?
USAF General C.Q. Brown
Senator, if confirmed, I’d provide them the opportunity to reapply.
Sen. Eric Schmitt
I just don’t think that’s good enough. I heard that from Secretary Austin. I just don’t think that’s good enough.
We did a great disservice to this country by firing people because they made that decision. I think they ought to be reinstated with rank and back pay.
I have not heard that from anybody that’s come before this committee, and I’m saddened by that.
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