President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said in his 2024 book “The War on Warriors” that allowing gay people to openly serve in the military is part of a “Marxist” agenda, even though Karl Marx didn’t like gay people, notes CNN.
Hegseth described both the original “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy and its repeal in 2011 as a “gateway” and a “camouflage” for broader cultural changes that he claims have undermined military cohesion and effectiveness…
On Thursday, Hegseth appeared to walk back his earlier remarks about DADT, telling CNN, “Oppose the repeal? No, I don’t,” and calling this report on his previous comments “more false reporting.”
…Speaking on Fox News in 2015, Hegseth expanded on his criticism, claiming that such policies were an erosion of standards.
“And what you’re seeing is a military right now that is more interested in social engineering led by this president than they are in war fighting,” he said in comments first reported by Meidas News. “So as a result, through ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and women in the military and these standards, they’re going to inevitably start to erode standards because they want that one female special operator, that one female Green Beret, that one female Army Ranger, that one female Navy SEAL.”
Hegseth reportedly paid off a woman he allegedly sexually assaulted and appeared openly drunk on numerous occasions.
(Sources: CNN, ResearchGate.net)