Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) on Sunday went after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying the military “could not do its job” without “the women who serve.”
“Well, this is the least qualified secretary of Defense in our nation’s history, and he’s questioning the ability of the women who actually qualified to their — to do their jobs. The female Rangers, the females that graduated from SEAL school, have met those highest standards,” Duckworth, an Army veteran, told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.”
“And, by the way, he is obfuscating a little bit because there are different male standards. The standard for a 45-year-old man is not the same as an 18-year-old man. So he doesn’t actually talk about that. He has long sought to push women out of the military. And, frankly, our military could not do its job of protecting America and keeping us safe without the women who serve in the military,” she added.
On Tuesday, Hegseth asserted that newly proposed military fitness standards might leave women out of certain combat roles. During an address to hundreds of the military’s key leaders, the Defense secretary declared new directives to make sure every combat position “returns to the highest male standard” of their service’s physical fitness test.
“If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it,” Hegseth said, though he stated that the armed forces will still welcome women into their ranks.
“I don’t want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape, or in combat units with females who can’t meet the same combat arms physical standards as men,” he said. “This job is life and death. Standards must be met.”
House Democratic leaders went after Hegseth last week, slamming him over fresh directives to American generals pushing for an end to “woke” policies at the Pentagon.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) described Hegseth’s speech as “shameful, chaotic [and] unhinged.”
“We can go down the litany of terrible ideas and policy positions that the secretary mentioned,” Aguilar said previously. “By the way, [he’s] the most unqualified secretary of Defense that this country has ever seen. So it’s hard to take him [seriously].”
The Hill has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
Source: The Hill
Be First to Comment