During a segment on this Sunday’s State of the Union on CNN, incoming Republican Sen. Jim Banks was asked about the upcoming hearings with Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and Banks made the ridiculous claim that Hegseth was “more qualified than Secretary Austin,” and Tapper just sat there like a potted plant before thanking Banks for coming on and ending the segment.
TAPPER: Trump’s secretary of defense nominee, Pete Hegseth, is going to appear before your committee on the 14th. ABC News reports the bipartisan leaders of your committee have requested more information about the 2017 sexual assault allegation against him, which, we should note, he denies.
And he was never charged with anything. Your colleague Senator Lindsey Graham has said Hegseth pledged to release his accuser from the confidentiality agreement. Has the committee been able to speak to this woman? And, if not, do you want to?
BANKS: I’m brand new to the committee. We haven’t had a single meeting yet. We have the hearing in a week with Pete Hegseth. I look forward to it. I fully support Pete Hegseth. He is eminently more qualified than Secretary Austin, who’s in the job, who disappeared on the job, who instructed the disastrous, deadly withdrawal of Afghanistan, and created a woke political mess at the Pentagon that Pete Hegseth is going to clean up.
Pete is a decorated combat veteran, served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He knows what’s at stake. I fully support him. He’s going to be great at the job.
TAPPER: All right, thank you so much, new Senator Jim Banks of Indiana.
BANKS: Thank you.
TAPPER: Good to see you, sir. Appreciate it.
Let’s compare and contrast their backgrounds, shall we?
Lloyd Austin:
Lloyd James Austin III (born August 8, 1953) is a retired United States Army officer and current civil servant who has served as the 28th United States secretary of defense since January 22, 2021.
Before retiring from the military in 2016, Austin served as the 12th commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM), beginning in March 2013.[1] Prior to that he served as the 33rd vice chief of staff of the Army from January 2012 to March 2013, and as commander of United States Forces – Iraq from September 2010 to December 2011. He is the first African American to hold each of these positions.[2] After retiring from the armed services, Austin joined the boards of Raytheon Technologies, Nucor, Tenet Healthcare, and Auburn University.[3][4] On December 7, 2020, he was nominated for defense secretary by then-President-elect Joe Biden and was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 22, 2021, by a vote of 93–2.[5]
Austin holds the unique distinction of having commanded in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan at the one-, two-, three- and four-star levels, and was the first African American to command a division, corps, and field army in combat. He is a recipient of the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for valor, for his actions during the Iraq invasion, as well as five Defense Distinguished Service Medals.[6]
So we’ve got Austin’s 41 years compared to Hegseth, who served from 2003-2014 and again from 2019-2021, whose highest rank was Major, and who has a whole lot of really extreme views when it comes to national security and our military, who has advocated against military benefits and wants to privatize and cut services to our troops, was forced out of his non-profit leadership role for misconduct, and who has some very extreme religious views as well, all of which should be disqualifying, and that’s not even the complete list of all of the problems with his nomination.
But the useless Jake Tapper couldn’t bother to bring any of that up in response to Banks’ racist nonsense about the military being too “woke” under Austin. Shameful.
