Trump's nominee poses a 'problem for our entire national defense': Senator
Fox News personality Pete Hegseth's nomination to be President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of defense has been shaken by allegations of sexual assault and drinking problems. But there's a much simpler reason the Senate should oppose his confirmation, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told MSNBC's Alex Wagner on Wednesday.
He doesn't believe women can serve equally in the military, she said — and this will make it impossible for the military to meet its already-difficult recruitment targets.
"Let's look at his problems with women," said Warren. "We've seen the allegations of sexual assault. But there's also the question of what he has said about women serving in the military. Remember, he's been nominated to be the secretary of defense, which means, the person over all of our military."
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"18 percent of active duty military right now are women," she continued. "And without those women, we don't meet our recruiting targets. We don't have the ability to field an Army, a Navy, an Air Force, Marines. What has he said? Those women should not be allowed, no woman should be allowed to be in combat. And that's like saying, you know, 'Here we are. We're going to run the military and for men, it is a great deal. Come on in. Do every job you've got here. Tell us what you like. We'll get you in there. We'll let you climb the ladder. We will let you do whatever you want. Women, not really. You're going to be confined to a different set of jobs and have no chance of ever meeting any of the top positions in the military. Because you won't have any combat experience.'"
That's a problem, Warren said.
"It's a problem for our military and ultimately for our national defense. Because, if we can't have the talents of those tens of thousands of women who right now sign up and join the military voluntarily, we're going to lose them and we're going to lose the next generation, and the next generation, wave after wave. And that is a problem for our entire national defense."
"You can't have a secretary of defense that starts out saying to nearly one-fifth of the active duty military, you're not really welcome here as a full member. Good luck to you, but go somewhere else," she added.
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