Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had his own “Macaca” moment Wednesday when he asked an Indian professor if he was a member of the Taliban.
Hagel made the comment during a speech about the challenges faced by the Department of Defense at his alma mater, the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
“You’re not a member of the Taliban are you?” Hagel asked Prof. Robin A. Gandhi, Ph. D., an Assistant Professor of Information Assurance at the college, who was trying to ask him a question.
Nonetheless, it’s hard to see how it could be an appropriate joke to the Defense Secretary, especially after he had just finished addressing questions about the serious issues taking place with the war in Afghanistan and the Taliban.
According to Buzzfeed, the Pentagon later released a statement clarifying the secretary’s response, saying that Hagel meant “absolutely no slight toward any individual in the audience was intended. That’s the last thing the Secretary would do under any circumstance, in this or any other setting. He didn’t know who would be called next to pose a question.”
Watch the Defense Secretary’s remarks below. His comment comes at the 56:40 mark.
