On Monday, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation, reportedly over disagreements and concerns with the Secretary of Defense, and the left wing media has used that as yet another excuse to go after one of their favorite targets, Pete Hegseth. That was the case Wednesday on CNN's NewsNight with Abby Phillip, where the host would find herself in a heated back and forth with one of her panelists.
Not surprisingly, Phillip began the segment with, "Are Pete Hegseth's priorities in the wrong place?" She added, "Multiple sources are telling CNN that the Defense Secretary is damaging the Army's efforts to adapt to the modern battlefield....There's growing concern about Hegseth's temperament.... Hegseth is, quote, 'talking about muscles, dudes in dresses, testosterone,' a defense official said."
After claiming that due to Hegseth's "purge of the military," the Army now has fewer Generals than at any point in history, Phillip would eventually turn to Caroline Sunshine, Deputy Director of Trump's 2024 campaign, and it got heated right away:
PHILLIP: They have so many vacant positions. They have to get some Senate-confirmed people in there. Can they even do that?
SUNSHINE: I don't know if they need to. Cause to you're point, let's just go back. Like World War II, one of the best things we did in preparation for it was we turned over the general corps frequently. And I think something that's interesting in addition to this is when the Biden administration was forcing our soldiers out of the service because they would not take a vaccine, when they were pushing back saying we couldn't do merit promotions, when they were forcing critical race theory --
PHILLIP: That's absolutely not what happened.
SUNSHIHNE: Yes, they did. Look it up, New York Post. Go fact-check me.
PHILLIP: Oh, well, I will fact-check you.
SUNSHINE: Fact-check me.
PHILLIP: They did not.
SUNSHINE: Yes they did.
PHILLIP: The Biden administration never said that they could not do merit --
SUNSHINE: OMB pushed back and said we could not do merit promotions in the military.
PHILLIP: That is not true.
SUNSHIHNE: Go ask soldiers. Go ask our soldiers.
PHILLIP: Caroline, that's not true.
In fact, a July 11, 2023 N.Y. Post story stated, "The White House has come out against a provision in the annual defense spending bill that would require the military to base promotion decisions on who is the best candidate for the job, regardless of their race." It also said, "Other GOP-proposed provisions the White House rebuffed include bans on funding for critical race theory and drag shows, eliminating the position of the Pentagon’s DEI chief."
And in June of 2022, they reported that the Army was teaching CRT to cadets at West Point.
Sunshine continued, by pointing out the left wing media bias on this whole topic:
SUNSHINE: So, it's just interesting, because when all of that was going on, you guys didn't frame it as a culture war issue. But now that Hegseth is coming in and cleaning that up, which is something that's very popular with the rank-and-file soldiers, it's framed as a culture war issue. That's not connected to reality. That's cognitive dissonance.
Phillip then challenged Sunshine to explain how Hegseth's focus on "culture wars" was helping America face cheap drone technology. However, as Sunshine was pointing out that the military would no longer be wasting time and resources on critical race theory and trannies, Phillips interrupted her:
PHILLIP: Well, I mean, look, hey, I think it is culture wars when all that Hegseth seems to be talking about is it -- let's just use his language, quote, trannies in the military. What does that have to do with the fact that we have a drone issue where we're not prepared to deal with Iran and their $35,000 drones? What does that have to do with any of that? How does that help us prepare as a military? I don't understand.
SUNSHINE: It has to do with the fact that while we are fighting this war, Hegseth also inherited a military that was not built for this war in terms of the fact of what I just said. Critical race theory and having drag queens on your military bases is not preparing for this battle. So, now we're on two fronts.
PHILLIP: Why is it that --
SUNSHINE: And we can't neglect the domestic front.
PHILLIP: Why is it that he's firing the people who were responsible for that transformation?
SUNSHINE: Because I don't know if you've talked to people who are in the military, but the unfortunate reality of when you're in the military is you are in a chain of command, and you can be fired at will. Same thing if you're in the president's cabinet.
The discussion continued with the other panelists getting more involved, you can see that in the video below.
Sunshine could not have been more correct on several fronts, not the least of which was correctly stating that Biden's politicizing of the military was a non issue for this liberal media, but Hegseth's attempt to fix it is a "culture war."
