Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) attempted to paint President Donald Trump as a racist during a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee when he confronted Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who completely shut him down with an eloquently stated rebuttal to his question. Reed kicked things off by saying to Hegseth, “Of the two dozen officers that you have fired for reasons unrelated to performance, since you have not indicated any cause, 60% are black or female.”
“Now did the president direct you to single out female and black officers to be dismissed?” Reed asked the secretary. Hegseth didn’t miss a beat, kicking off his response with a simple, straightforward, “Senator, of course not.” The secretary then added, “We’ve emphasized at this department from the beginning, the only metric is merit.”
Hegseth, a former Marine, then opened proverbial fire on other members of the committee and ripped into previous leadership of the Department of War. “Members on this committee and the previous leadership of this department were focused on social engineering, race and gender in ways that we think were unhealthy for the department,” he continued. “In President Trump’s War Department, we make decisions based on only one thing: Merit.”
Later during the hearing, as he was being pressed to provide more information about the reasons behind the firing or sidelining of 30 generals and admirals over the course of the last year, Hegseth noted that former President Barack Obama had taken a similar course of action with a much larger number of generals and other military personnel.
“I would also note that under Barack Obama, 197 general officers were removed,” the secretary of war said, going on to add, “So this is not something specific to this administration.” According to a report from The New York Times, Reed was all-in on attacking Hegseth from the moment he was given time to question him. Reed accused the secretary of “dangerously exaggerating” the U.S. military accomplishments in Iran, while downplaying shortfalls.
“I am concerned that you have been telling the president what he wants to hear, instead of what he needs to hear,” Mr. Reed told Hegseth. Later, Reed, who is a West Point graduate and former officer in the 82nd Airborne Division, said, “Mr. Secretary, I believe you are causing lasting harm to the military.” At one point Hegseth struck back saying, “The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.”
Many in the comment section of a viral clip of the exchange came to Hegseth’s defense. One individual explained why so many black and female officers were fired, saying, “Common sense would suggest streamlining any organization whose emphasis for hiring/promotions the last few years has been DEI would include a significant portion of any removals/demotions coming from those DEI personnel. The retained population would be those most capable, most committed, most reliable.”
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Another commenter wrote, “Merit should have remained the standard and instead they strayed to please everyone. I’m glad we got back to merit!” Someone else agreed with merit being the standard that should determine if someone is hired for a position, writing, “Everything based on merit, if you’re good enough, you’re good enough end of story. Legend.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video