Sara Jacobs, Pete Hegseth Clash Over Transgender Troops In The Military

Forbes Breaking News

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) questioned Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth about the inclusion of transgender people in the military.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. The gentleman yields back.

00:02The chair now recognizes a gentlelady from California, Ms. Jacobs.

00:06Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all of our witnesses for being here.

00:11Secretary Hegseth, as you probably know, today is National Women's Veterans Day,

00:16and in your confirmation hearing and in subsequent conversations, you've said,

00:21and I'm quoting you now, women in our military have and continue to make amazing contributions

00:26across all aspects of our battlefield, and that women were some of the best soldiers you served

00:31with. Do you still stand by those statements? Yes. Great. Thank you. As you probably know,

00:38I represent San Diego, the biggest military community in the country, so I meet with

00:42countless service members all the time, and with your focus on emphasis and on merit and standards,

00:48I wanted to tell you about three incredible women in our military. So, the first woman is a major

00:54responsible for advanced collective warfighting training. Her officer evaluation report rates

01:00her as most qualified, and some of the comments included are, and I'm quoting now, she lives the

01:07Army values and demonstrates the warrior ethos daily. She rates within the top 5% of officers I've

01:13encountered in 18 years of military service. The second woman is an aviator with a record of over

01:2050 combat missions, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Two quotes from her most recent

01:25fitness report in April include, quoting again, people excel under her leadership, and she has my

01:33strongest possible recommendation for promotion. The third woman is an instructor for an Army ROTC

01:39battalion. According to her evaluation report, her overall performance was rated at far exceeds

01:45standards, and the comments include, she is undoubtedly within the top 5% of non-commissioned officers

01:52I've worked with in my 22 years of service. Given their stellar qualifications and accomplishments,

01:58and their record of surpassing standards, I assume that you agree that the Pentagon and the services should

02:04do everything they can to retain women like these, correct? I would commend the major, the aviator,

02:11and the instructor for their service. Great. I'm glad you agree because I also believe we should be

02:16recruiting and retaining the very best and brightest in our country to serve in the military. And yet,

02:22you are actually kicking out these three highly qualified service members solely because of their

02:27identity. These are trans women. And you are using the very same arguments that have been used against

02:35desegregating the military or allowing women to serve or allowing gay people to serve. And in all those cases,

02:41those arguments were wrong. So I think it's clear that this is actually not about standards or, and I'm quoting

02:48you again, an equal, unwavering, gender-neutral, merit-based system, because if it were, you would be

02:55keeping these women in. Instead, you are the one injecting culture wars into the military, and it's at the

03:01detriment of our military readiness and national security. Now, General Cain, I'd like to turn to you.

03:07So to be clear, these are men who think they're women. These are women. I'm happy to educate you on

03:13trans issues at another time. But these are men, and so what we've identified is that there's mental

03:16health issues with that belief system that are detrimental to readiness. And that's the

03:21determination that we've made and that we stand behind. Gender dysphoria creates complication.

03:25You don't trust your commanding officers to be able to evaluate the people under them

03:30to decide. If that were true, wouldn't that show up in their fit reps? And yet these

03:35fit reps are from the last three months, and all of their commanding officers say that they

03:39exceed standards. I'm turning to General Cain now. General Cain, I'd like to touch on something

03:44you said yesterday before the Senate Appropriations Committee. When asked whether the United States is

03:50under a foreign invasion, you said, at this point in time, I don't see any foreign state-sponsored

03:55folks invading. Despite that testimony, 2,000 National Guard troops have been federalized and

04:01deployed to Los Angeles, and 700 Marines from my community of Southern California are now on the

04:06ground there as well. And on Tuesday, President Trump, flanked by hundreds of uniform troops, said,

04:12they are there, said, this is the reason they are there. They are there. I'm quoting now.

04:16Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores,

04:20only to watch our country be destroyed by an invasion. General, have you personally informed

04:24the President that according to your own assessment, there is no invasion?

04:30Ma'am, first, you know, the definition of an invasion, whether or not that's a policy,

04:37that's really a policy decision. And, you know, from a military-only perspective,

04:42I, you know, stand by what I said yesterday. But, you know, my advice to the President

04:49in any particular matter from a security standpoint, or for the Secretary for that matter,

04:55I, you know, keep that between them.

04:57I understand that. But the highest-ranking military advisor in the country does not believe

05:01there is an invasion, and yet the President of the United States is federalizing the National Guard

05:05of the United States. General Ladies' Times expired. General Ladies' Times expired.

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