U.S. Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) claimed that getting rid of DEI policies from the military is “politicizing.”
Slotkin made the remark on Sunday during an appearance on ABC News’ “This Week,” when co-host Martha Raddatz when asked about President-elect Donald Trump’s choosing Pete Hegseth as the incoming defense secretary.
“Hegseth has also said that any general that was involved in any of the DEI woke crap has got to go,” Raddatz remarked.
“Do you expect Donald Trump to fire top generals who he considers woke or those close to former Chairman Mark Milley?”
During an interview on the “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast, the 44-year-old Fox News host said that “any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI, woke s–t has got to go.”
According to Slotkin, Democrats don’t need to speculate about what the Department of Defense’s agenda will be under Hegseth’s leadership.
“Yeah, I don’t think you have to interpret anything,” the incoming senator remarked.
“I think they’ve been very clear that they’re putting together some sort of panel that’s going to look at generals,” she insisted.
Slotkin’s response to Hegseth’s view that generals who pushed DEI/woke bullshit should be fired: “We’re really at risk of politicizing the military in a way that we can’t put the genie back.”
But… it’s the DEI/woke nonsense that politicized the military!pic.twitter.com/jOkCHt0cUp
— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) November 17, 2024
“People who have served their nation their entire lives over multiple administrations Democrat and Republican in combat, they are now openly talking about dismissing them like some sort of kangaroo court,” Slotkin added.
During the podcast, Hegseth said he would immediately fire chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., over his “woke” agenda.
He also does not believe that female soldiers should be fighting on the front lines.
“I’m straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth commented.
“It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”
Slotkin is worried that Hegseth’s agenda will irrevocably alter the military.
“You can imagine the stress in the Pentagon about that, but also on the future of who we are as a military, right?” she questioned.
“Our military and the role of the military is in the Constitution for a reason and I think we’re really at risk of politicizing the military in a way that we can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”
Hegseth also want to change the rules of war to allow the U.S. to bomb cultural sites of opposing nations.
“If we’re going to fight to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, this regime, then we need to rewrite the rules that are advantageous to us,” he stated.
“I don’t want to hit cultural sites on purpose, but if you’re using one to harbor your most dangerous weapons, then that should be on the target list, too.”
