Senior military leaders are voicing support for women in the military after Fox News host Tucker Carlson complained on his show about recent changes meant to attract and retain more female service members, reports The Hill.
“Women lead our most lethal units with character,” tweeted Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston, the service’s top enlisted leader. “They will dominate ANY future battlefield we’re called to fight on. @TuckerCarlson’s words are divisive, don’t reflect our values. We have THE MOST professional, educated, agile, and strongest [noncommissioned officer] Corps in the world.”
On Monday, President Biden marked International Women’s Day by touting the recent promotion of two female generals. In his speech, Biden also touched on efforts in recent years to better accommodate women in the military, including work to design maternity flight suits and updating grooming standards to allow for a wider range of hairstyles.
The next night, Carlson railed against those efforts.
"So we've got new hairstyles and maternity flight suits. Pregnant women are going to fight our wars. It's a mockery of the U.S. military,” Carlson said.
“While China’s military becomes more masculine as it has assembled the world’s largest navy, our military needs to become as Joe Biden says more feminine, whatever feminine means anymore,” he continued.
The changes Carlson focused on were initiated during the Trump administration.
The Air Force has been working on buying maternity flight suits after announcing in 2019 that it would allow pilots to continue flying longer into their pregnancies without a waiver.
Meanwhile, in January, the Army unveiled new grooming standards that had been recommended in December, including allowing longer ponytails and wider braids, cornrows or twists. While grooming regulations are meant to reinforce uniformity, many women of color have complained that the strict rules don’t allow for braids or other hairstyles that are easier for those with different textures and hair lengths.
Asked about Carlson’s comments Thursday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby relayed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s “revulsion” at the segment.
“What we absolutely won't do is take personnel advice from a talk show host, or the Chinese military, and maybe those folks feel like they have something to prove, that’s on them,” Kirby told reporters.
But Kirby also said the American Forces Network (AFN), which broadcasts to troops deployed overseas, would continue to carry Carlson’s show.
“By instruction we are required to broadcast and make available for men and women and their families overseas the same type of content, news, information and sports content that their fellow citizens can get, so his show is aired on AFN,” Kirby said.
Meanwhile The Wrap reports, U-S Senator Tammy Duckworth went hard after Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Thursday, tweeting from her campaign account, “F–k Tucker Carlson.”
F*ck Tucker Carlson. While he was practicing his two-step, America’s female warriors were hunting down Al Qaeda and proving the strength of America’s women.
— Tammy Duckworth (@TammyforIL) March 11, 2021
Happy belated International Women’s Day to everyone but Tucker, who even I can dance better than. pic.twitter.com/E4wchht9lA
This isn’t the first time Duckworth and Carlson have sparred, nor the first time she’s used her own military history to back herself up. In July 2020, she hit back after Carlson suggested she “hates America,” reminding him of her service in the armed forces.
“Does @TuckerCarlson want to walk a mile in my legs and then tell me whether or not I love America?” tweeted the Purple Heart recipient, who lost both legs while serving in Iraq.
Carlson responds:
Worth a watch, regardless of your politics. Tucker expresses concern about how openly political our Defense Department is at this moment, in ways it hasn't been before. https://t.co/vSmdHvOINA
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) March 12, 2021
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