Matt Gaetz gets kudos for grilling Secretary of Defense about his ‘woke’ new military

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During a House Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz exposed what appeared to be Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s shocking ignorance regarding the inner workings of the military.

Austin claimed in contradiction of known evidence that the military isn’t teaching critical race theory.

“We do not teach critical race theory. We don’t embrace critical race theory, and I think that’s a spurious conversation. And so we are focused on extremist behaviors. And not ideology, not people’s thoughts, not people’s political orientation,” he said.

He also defended the military’s ostensible war on extremism after Gaetz told him of service members who’ve complained privately to him about Austin’s decision to relieve Space Force Lt. Co. Matthew Lohmeier of his duties. Lohmeier was recently relieved for the supposed crime of criticizing the military’s embrace of Marxism.

“I have gotten 10 times that amount of input — 50 times that amount of input — on the other side that have said, ‘Hey, we’re we’re glad to have had the ability to have a conversation with ourselves and with our leadership, and that’s what we need to make sure we remain a cohesive organization,'” the defense secretary maintained.

Watch the full back-and-forth exchange below:

But Gaetz wasn’t buying what Austin was trying to sell him.

“It may be that you’re receiving that input in the ratios you describe because it was your directive. It may be that people are concerned about criticizing your decision because Lt. Col. Lohmeier was not relieved of his command for his actions,” he said.

“He was not relieved of his command because of poor performance regarding his duties. He was relieved of his command precisely because of his thoughts and because of his critique of critical race theory,” he added.

In other words, it’s possible that so many service members are praising the defense secretary’s decisions because they’re afraid of him.

“It is particularly helpful that you have said that the Department of Defense does not embrace critical race theory and that you think the discussion is not appropriate. I would suggest that it is the ideology that is not appropriate,” Gaetz added.

The problem is that Austin’s claim can easily be debunked. In fact, it was effectively debunked minutes later when Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended the military’s teaching of CRT.

He said specifically that “on the issue of critical race theory,” it’s “important actually for those of us in inform to be open-minded and widely read.”

“The United States Military Academy is a university and it is important that we train and we understand,” he said.

He added that he thinks critical race theory is somehow representative of real American history.

“I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?” he said.

Listen:

Besides apparently being unaware of this, Austin was also unaware that his second-in-command, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense Bishop Garrison, is himself a racial essentialist who appears to subscribe to CRT and black supremacy.

“It is particularly concerning to me that you have hired a critical race theorist to give you advice on personnel matters and that person is Bishop Garrison,” Gaetz noted.

Garrison is, among other things, a staunch advocate of the 1619 Project, a pseudo-historical rewrite of American history designed to recenter the country’s founding around the experiences of black people.

Like other CRT advocates, Garrison likewise falsely believes that America is suffering from an epidemic of white supremacist violence.

“We will continue to face the nation-ending threat of white supremacy and white nationalist extremism unless we invest in Combating Violent Extremism (CVE) programs, which this administration has cut, and find the courage to have honest-to-God difficult, uncomfortable conversations in our homes and communities about our history of race and privilege in America and how it has shaped our lives today,” he wrote in an essay two years ago for a site called Inkstick Media.

“While pundits clutch pearls and attempt to convince us that the 1619 Project is a lie, that it’s really white society under attack, and that we’re in a post-racial society because we once had a black man as president, more radicalized white supremacists will shoot up schools, markets, stores, and places of worship to assert their ideology,” he added.

The most recent mass shooters have all been black.

“While you testify publicly to our committee that the department doesn’t embrace critical race theory, you have hired someone who is precisely a critical race theorist,” Gaetz added.

Austin replied the same as he’d done before, by pleading ignorance.

“This is the first I’ve ever heard Mr. Garrison be described as a critical race theorist, so this is new,” he said.

It seems like everything was “new” to him, including the demonstrable fact that the military has turned into a “woke” social justice “university” …

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