Female fighter pilot buries Trump speech as 'bonkers': 'Everybody in that room knows it'

Former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath blasted the speeches from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump on Tuesday to a room full of the top U.S. military leaders.

Among the things McGrath schooled Hegseth on was his claim that there were no female and male standards for combat soldiers. There are combat standards of everybody, she said — in her case it was being able to fly a fighter plane.

"Pete Hegseth still hasa lot to learn, I think,unfortunately," said McGrath when speaking to CNN after the speeches.

"When I flew mycombat missions, there was not aset, male standard and a femalestandard for flying an aircraftonto the back of an aircraftcarrier. You can either do it oryou can't," she said.

"And so I feel likeit's the notion of standing upthere and saying to the generalsand admirals who all, by theway, know that there were never separate combatstandards for males andfemales, you know, combat jobshave had one standard for a longtime," McGrath continued. "And part of when we openedcombat jobs to women, those ofus who were in those jobswanted one standard to be set.And it was."

She called it ridiculous, but confessed, "honestly,that in comparison to the restof what we heard in the lasthour is really minor. That speechwas bonkers by the president, andeverybody sitting in that roomknows that we don't have acoherent foreign policy ordefense policy. And that, Ithink, is a bigger issue indeed."