Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) on Sunday warned of the “risk of politicizing the military” in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week.”
ABC Information’s Martha Raddatz was speaking to the Michigan Democrat about President-elect Trump’s choose for Protection Secretary, former Fox Information host Pete Hegseth, saying he “has also said that ‘Any general that was involved in any of the DEI woke crap has got to go,'” after which requested Slotkin if she thinks the president-elect is ready “to fire top generals who he considers ‘woke.'”
Slotkin responded that she believes “they’ve been very clear that they’re putting together some sort of panel that’s gonna look at generals, people who have served their nation their entire lives, over multiple administrations, Democrat and Republican, in combat, they are now openly talking about dismissing them like some sort of kangaroo court.”
“You can imagine the stress in the Pentagon about that, but also in the future of who we are as a military, right?” Slotkin added. “Our military and the role of the military is in the Constitution for a reason, and I think we’re really at risk of politicizing the military in a way that we can’t put the genie back in the bottle.”
Slotkin’s fellow Democrats have criticized Hegseth as Trump’s choice to steer the Division of Protection. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), who served within the Military, has mentioned that Hegseth isn’t “a serious person and a serious pick.” One other New York Democrat, Rep. Dan Goldman, has mentioned he was “very disturbed” by Trump’s alternative of Hegseth for the highest position within the Pentagon.
“I’m shocked, truly, and this is exactly what we worried about when we warned about Donald Trump, which is that he is going to appoint unqualified loyalists to shape this government into his own personal fiefdom,” Goldman mentioned earlier this week.
Whereas serving as a Fox Information host and conservative commentator, Hegseth had mapped out coverage positions geared toward pushing again on efforts to advertise variety and open alternatives for ladies and LGBTQ service members.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump transition staff for remark.
