Jill Tokuda: “To be clear, January 6 was an attack on America, our democracy, and this institution, which we have all taken an oath to…”

“To be clear, January 6 was an attack on America, our democracy, and this institution, which we have all taken an oath to serve. This shouldn't be controversial. Servicemembers who swear an oath to the Constitution should not try to overthrow the United States Government. Yet, the latest report from the Department of Defense inspector general found that 78 servicemembers were alleged to have advocated for the overthrow of the government in the past year alone. That is likely an undercount given reported challenges in gathering and compiling data across the military departments. Clearly, extremism in the military remains a persistent and serious issue, one that we should not take lightly, again, given the January 6 insurrection in which we know some servicemembers and veterans participated. This fact alone should be deeply concerning to every single one of us in this Chamber. Instead of taking this problem seriously, this amendment prohibits the Department of Defense from implementing recommendations designed to counter extremist activity in our military. This undermines unit cohesion, the readiness of our forces, and ultimately public trust in our military. My colleagues allege that the Department's efforts to counter extremist activities unfairly targets conservatives.…”