Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas ripped the United States Navy Thursday over the use of a drag queen as a “digital ambassador” for the service.
“The bottom line is the Navy, like most of our services under President Biden, face a recruiting crisis. Using a drag queen ambassador is not a solution to that crisis, it’s an example of a major cause of the crisis,” Cotton, a combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told Fox News host Martha MacCallum.
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“Young Americans join the military because they want to serve our nation and they’re patriotic and they want to feel comradery and they want excitement and adventure,” Cotton continued. “They join to become warriors. They don’t join to become social justice warriors.”
The Navy selected Yeoman Second Class Joshua Kelley to serve as a digital ambassador in 2022, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported Monday. Kelley performs as a drag queen under the stage name “Harpy Daniels” and posts videos to social media accounts.
The Navy highlighted Kelley in a 2020 profile for “Pride Month” posted on the website for Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren, a base in Virginia.
“The diversity and acceptance from everyone at the command allows me to be comfortable with myself in a professional setting and gain respect and opportunities like everyone else,” Kelley said.
Cotton and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, along with 12 other Republican senators, demanded answers from the Navy about the “digital ambassador” program.
Kelley took aim at critics of the digital ambassador program in posts on social media.
“You only want to support the military when it benefits you and doesn’t involve queer people,” Kelley wrote in a Thursday post with a video that alternated between the sailor in drag and wearing the uniform.
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