Generals who focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, lecture a “white colonel” about the need for more diverse officers, and proclaim climate change a national security threat seem to be finding rewards in the Biden administration.
In February, Air Force Brig. Gen. Stacy Jo Huser and two other women were part of a panel at the University of Mississippi about diversity and inclusion in the armed forces. The event’s sponsors were the Ole Miss Army ROTC program and the Trent Lott Leadership Institute.
In March, President Joe Biden nominated Huser for promotion to major general.
Hers is one of more than 200 military promotions held up in an effort by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to undo the Defense Department’s new taxpayer-funded abortion policy.
“President Biden has appointed a bunch of woke advocates to senior positions in the armed forces; at the macro level, that is extremely problematic,” Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation, told The Daily Signal.
The Senate Armed Services Committee and the full Senate are now being forced to review Biden’s individual military promotions rather than rubber-stamp all of them.
“Sen. Tuberville is 100% right on the abortion policy. But his efforts have exposed that the Senate has done a terrible job of vetting these flag officers,” Jones said.
In February, the Defense Department adopted a policy of allowing three weeks of taxpayer-funded paid leave and reimbursement of travel expenses for enlisted women who get an abortion.
The American Accountability Foundation named several generals nominated by Biden for promotions.
Jones said there is a “revolving door” from the military to Senate Armed Services Committee staff to defense contractors that causes a certain amount of deference for a president’s nominees.
Biden nominated Army Maj. Gen. Anthony R. Hale for promotion to lieutenant general. Last year, Hale made diversity recruitment for military intelligence officers a priority.
“With regards to African Americans, we’re below 9%,” Hale told KGUN 9 in Tucson, Arizona, noting that minorities in general make up just 30% of military intelligence officers.
“And as we look at diversity, equity, and inclusion, getting after and doing something about the diversity within our MI Corps just makes us better,” Hale said.
Army Lt. Gen. Laura A. Potter, renominated for lieutenant general, focused on climate change in a 2021 speech about rising sea levels.
“We consider that a national security problem,” Potter said in March 2021, according to the Army’s website. “You look at the impact of the changes to the permafrost and an increasingly navigable waterway, or if you look at the archipelagos and the threats of rising water levels, those become potential security challenges for those countries. And they certainly impact how the Army would have to operate.”
In an interview, she also stressed the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, as a priority on two fronts.
“One, how are we growing a diverse MI corps in terms of gender and ethnicity, but also, how are we ensuring our talent management processes aimed for officers that we have diversity within the corps, diversity of assignments and opportunities to expose our soldiers and officers to everything they need to be proficient in their tasks,” Potter said.
Potter also was a member of the women’s panel held in 2021 by the West Point Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity.
Biden tapped Space Force Brig. Gen. Jody A. Merritt for promotion to major general. She promoted DEI in a post on LinkedIn.
“Such an honor to be on this esteemed panel with you and the other panelists!” Merritt wrote. “United States Space Force #STEM #diversity #inclusion #diversityandinclusion #equality #leadership #womenleaders #genderequality.”
The Daily Caller reported that Merritt had tweeted in favor of gun control. However, the tweet linked by the media outlet appears to have been deleted.
The Daily Signal previously reported on Air Force Col. Ben Jonsson, who Biden nominated for promotion to brigadier general. Jonsson wrote that his fellow “white colonels” are the “biggest barriers” to addressing “racial injustice” in the military because many are “blind to institutional racism.”
In an interview Tuesday on Newsmax, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt said he knew Jonsson well and was “disappointed” in him.
“If you jump on the bandwagon of the day, which today is the Marxist concept of DEI [and] eliminating the meritocracy, maybe you’ll get promoted,” Holt told Newsmax. “But what I’d rather see is mission-focused officers and leaders who are true to their oath.”
The Daily Signal previously reported that Tuberville had blocked the promotion of Navy Capt. Michael Donnelly, who allowed a drag show on the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
The Daily Signal also previously reported on two Air Force generals nominated by Biden for promotions—Lt. Gen. Kevin Schneider as commander of Pacific Forces and Brig. Gen. Elizabeth Arledge as major general.
Schneider had said he wanted DEI to be part of the Air Force’s “DNA.” Arledge has tweeted about the problem of “whiteness.”
Navy Rear Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, also nominated for a promotion, has focused on “gender equality and women’s empowerment” and complained that 80% of Congress is made up of men, The Daily Signal previously reported.
The White House did not respond to an inquiry from The Daily Signal about this report. Previously, Biden has criticized Tuberville for blocking the nominations for military promotions over the abortion issue.
“What Sen. Tuberville is doing is not only wrong—it is dangerous,” Biden said in an official statement July 21. “In this moment of rapidly evolving security environments and intense competition, he is risking our ability to ensure that the United States armed forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world.”
In a July 28 letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Tuberville sought additional information from the Pentagon about how its abortion policy is being implemented. The Alabama Republican wrote:
Since the policy’s implementation and despite my numerous requests, the DoD has refused to provide basic information on the utilization of this policy, such as the budget from which it will draw funds necessary to cover this travel. In fact, the DoD recently provided a briefing for members of the Senate Armed Services Committee which failed to deliver any new information, and frankly, raised more questions than answers.
Tuberville also raised questions about how much his holds on Biden’s nominations actually affect the military. He noted that senators from both parties have used similar moves to get information from the Pentagon.
The Alabama Republican writes in his letter to Austin:
According to the Congressional Research Service, there were approximately 863 active duty general/flag officers as of September 2022. The Pentagon estimates that my ‘hold’ on promotions being passed by unanimous consent could impact approximately 650 nominations by the end of the year. This would amount to roughly 75% of all active duty general/flag officers.
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