Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, blasted Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for being too concerned with “wokeism” and not focusing enough on military strategy.
During Tuesday’s House Armed Services Committee hearing, Austin faced questioning about his $773 billion budget request presented to Congress.
“You have been blowing a lot of calls lately on matters of strategy, Mr. Secretary,” Gaetz told Austin. “You told us that Russia couldn’t lose. You told us that the Taliban couldn’t immediately win. So I guess I’m wondering what in the $773 billion that you are requesting today is going to help you make assessments that are accurate in the face of so many blown calls?”
Austin did not immediately have a response, instead telling Gaetz he would “let the budget speak for itself.”
Gaetz told Austin he sees how the U.S. military is behind China and Russia in developing hypersonic weapon systems, adding that “while everyone else in the world seems to be developing capabilities and being more strategic, we got time to embrace critical race theory at West Point, to embrace socialism at the National Defense University, to do mandatory pronoun training.”
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Austin pushed back, telling Gaetz: “The fact that you are embarrassed by your country, I’m sorry for that.”
The two men shouted over one another as Gaetz assured Austin he was not embarrassed by America.
“No, I’m embarrassed by your leadership,” Gaetz said. “I am not embarrassed for my country. I wish we were not losing to China. That is so disgraceful that you would sit here and conflate your failures with the failures of the uniform service members. You guys said that Russia would overrun Ukraine in 36 days. You said that the Taliban would be kept at bay for months. You totally blew those calls, and maybe we would be better at them if the National Defense University actually worked a little more on strategy and a little less on wokeism.”
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Austin maintained that action from the U.S. and its allies has kept Russia from overrunning Ukraine, but Gaetz disagreed.
“That was baked into your flawed assessment,” Gaetz said. “I saw that the Obama administration tried to destroy our military by starving it of resources. And it seems the Biden administration is trying to destroy our military by force-feeding it wokeism.”
